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PRmCETON,  N.  J. 


BV  3790  .P5  1887 
Pierson,  Arthur  T.  1837 
1911. 
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EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


Ibangelistic  fflor^i 


IN 


PRINCIPLE    AND     PRACTICE. 


BY 


ARTHUR   T.^PIERSON,    D.D., 

AUTHOR   OF    "the   CRISIS   OF    MISSIONS,"    "  MANY   INFALLIBLE    PROOFS,' 
"  KEYS   TO  THE  WORD,"    ETC. 


"Do  the  work  of  an  Evangelist." 


NEW   YORK: 

THE    BAKER    AND    TAYLOR    CO. 
9  Bond  Street. 


Copyright,  1887, 
By  The  Baker  and  Taylor  Co. 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York. 


TO 

DWIGHT    L.    MOODY, 

WHOSE   LOVE    FOR  THE  WORD,  PASSION    FOR  SOULS,  AND   ZEAL 

IN    THE    WORK    OF    EVANGELIZATION    HAVE     PROVOKED 

TO    LOVE   AND   TO    GOOD    WORKS   VERY   MANY 

ON     BOTH    SIDES    OF    THE    SEA, 

Fiji's  23ook  IS  Bcnicatcti 

BY   HIS   CORDIAL   FRIEND   AND   TRUE   YOKE-FELLOW, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFATORY. 


T  is   "the  altar  that  sanctifieth  the 
gift."     To   this   divine  pledge  this 
book  owes  its  origin  and  its  inspi- 
ration.    The  object  ennobles  the  oblation. 

The  cause  of  a  world's  evangelization  is 
like  the  wheel  in  Ezekiel's  vision.  Its  rim 
is  dreadful,  for  it  touches  both  earth  and 
heaven  ;  and  every  other  question  that  is 
vital  to  holy  living  is  embraced  in  it,  —  "a 
wheel  in  the  middle  of  a  wheel."  To  reach 
all  human  souls  with  the  good  tidings  is  so 
imperative  in  importance  that  it  fills  the 
word  of  God  and  covers  the  whole  history 
and  philosophy  of  church-life. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  to  hope  that 
the  pen  which  writes  these  pages  can  solve 
this  problem  of  the  ages.  But  a  close  study 
of   the    theme  for  twenty   years,   in   circum- 


Viii  PREFATORY. 

stances  providentially  very  helpful,  has  thrown 
some  light  upon  the  matter  ;  and  experience, 
that,  like  lamps  at  the  ship's  stern,  illumines 
the  path  which  has  been  traversed,  throws  at 
least  a  dim  ray  over  the  onward  course. 

When  the  walls  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons were  to  be  ornamented  with  cartoons, 
Haydon,  the  historical  painter,  begged  Par- 
liament that,  if  he  might  not  be  one  of  the 
elect  artists,  he  might  paint  one  figure,  put 
on  a  few  touches,  or  at  least  mix  the  colors 
or  hold  the  brushes  for  those  who  were  more 
favored. 

ARTHUR    T.    PIERSON. 

2320  Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia, 
Septemler,  18S7. 


CONTENTS. 
♦   ■ 

Page 

Prefatory vii 

Part   I. 

Chapter 

I.  The  Evangelistic  Problem      ....  13 

II.  The  Scriptural  Solution 25 

III.  Duty  and  Delight 38 

IV.  Weights  and  Wings      ......  52 

V.  Power  in  Preaching 64 

VI.     Wisdom  of  Words 79 

VII.     The  Secular  Spirit 9^ 

VIII.     Helps  and  Hindrances 106 

IX.     The  Service  of  Song 119 

X.     Aids  and  Accessories 129 

XI.     The  Evangelistic  Era 142 

XII.     The  Evangehstic  Spirit I53 

Part   II. 

XIII.  Whitefield,  the  Field  Evangelist     .     .   169 

XIV.  Howard,  the  Prison  Evangelist       •     •   184 
XV.     Finney,  the  Revival  Evangelist      .     •    I97 


X 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  Page 

XVI.     Chalmers,  the  Parish  Evangelist    .     .211 
XVII.     Spurgeon,  the  Pastoral  Evangelist       .  220 
XVIII.     Shaftesbury,   the   Philanthropic   Evan- 
gelist       235 

XIX.     Moody,  the  Evangelist  of  the  People    .  248 
XX.     Bliss,  the  Singing  Evangelist     .     .     .  262 
XXI.     McAll,  the  Evangelist  of  the  French    .  277 
XXII.     McAuley,   the  Evangelist  of  the  Out- 
cast     288 

XXIII.     An  Example  of  Evangelism  ....  302 
XXIV.     A  Word  of  Witness 315 

Appendix , 333 


PART    I. 

EVANGELISTIC   WORK   IN  THEORY. 


Evangelistic  Work. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  EVANGELISTIC    PROBLEM. 

OSES    was    bidden    to    make    two 
trumpets  of  silver   for   the   calling 
of  the  assembly  and  the  journeying 
of  the  camps.i 

That  last  command  and  commission  of  our 
Lord, 

"  GO   YE   INTO   ALL  THE   WORLD 
AND    PREACH   THE   GOSPEL  TO    EVERY   CREATURE," 

is  the  signal  blast  upon  the  silver  trumpet  of 
the  Great  Captain  of  our  salvation.  Down 
through  the  ages  sounds  its  clarion  peal, 
echoing  with  the  voice  of  God.  It  is  the 
call  for  the  solemn  assembly,  it  is  the  sign 
for  the  journeying  of  the  camps ;   it  summons 

1  Numbers  x.  2. 


14  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

the  Church  to  take  up  the  onward  march, 
and  stirs  believers  to  unresting  action,  that 
every  hving  soul  may  hear  the  gospel  of 
God. 

How  to  do  this  work  with  promptness, 
persistence,  and  power  is  the  problem  of 
EvangeHzation.  It  may  well  command  and 
consume  the  best  thought  of  the  wisest,  and 
the  best  effort  of  the  strongest,  of  the  followers 
of  Jesus.  The  problem  is  gigantic  because 
the  factors  in  it  are  colossal,  involving  on  the 
one  hand  the  whole  world  of  the  unsaved, 
and  on  the  other  the  whole  church  of  the 
redeemed.  This  great  trust  is  committed  to 
the  great  body  of  believers ;  and  to  it  no  true 
child  of  God  ought  to  be,  or  indeed  can  be, 
indifferent.  The  one  grand  issue  of  the  age 
is  the  immediate  carrying  out  of  our  Lord's 
marching  orders,  **  Go,  make  disciples  of  all 
nations !  " 

Let  us,  first  of  all,  look  at  some  of  the  fac- 
tors that  enter  into  this  problem. 

The  population  of  the  world  is  reckoned  at 
about  fifteen  hundred  millions.     Of  these  at 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  PROBLEM.  15 

least  one  half  are  yet  in  the  deep,  dark  death- 
shade,  not  only  unconverted,  but  unevange- 
lized,  —  that  is,  unreached  by  the  gospel 
message.  That  the  picture  may  not  be 
painted  in  the  discouraging  colors  of  the 
pessimist,  or  with  the  gloomy  undertone  of 
despondency,  let  us  concede  that  only  this 
half  of  the  race  remain  to  be  delivered  out 
of  the  darkness  of  spiritual  death.  How  are 
we  to  bring  every  soul  of  this  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  millions  of  mankind  to  the 
knowledge  of  a  crucified  Christ  ?  This  is 
the  engrossing  question,  and  in  answering 
it  some  grave  facts  must  be  considered  and 
weighed. 

First,  it  can  never  be  done  by  the  present 
inadeqtiate  supply  of  laborers.  Take,  for  in- 
stance, the  foreign  field  as  the  most  distant 
from  the  centres  of  Christian  influence,  and 
as  the  most  destitute  of  the  gospel.  If  all 
missionaries,  evangelists,  and  teachers  in 
pagan,  papal,  and  Moslem  lands,  including 
men  and  women,  foreign-born  and  native- 
born,   were    economically    distributed,    each 


1 6  EVANGELISTIC  WORK. 

would  have  twenty-five  thousand  souls  to 
care  for. 

Secondly,  the  opportwiity  of  evangelization 
is  practically  limited  to  the  life-time  of  each 
generation,  which  is  about  one  third  of  a 
century.  Within  that  short  period  every  new 
generation  of  Christian  workers  must  accom- 
plish whatever  work  they  are  to  do  for  their 
fellow-men,  for  both  they  and  the  souls  for 
whom  they  are  held  responsible  are  rapidly 
passing  away.  The  great  bulk  of  disciples 
now  living  must  contribute  their  part  to  the 
solution  of  this  evangelistic  problem  within 
the  bounds  of  this  present  century. 

Thirdly,  all  accessions  to  the  cJmrcJies  by 
conversion  do  not  represent  actual  growth. 
An  increase  of  three  per  cent  per  annum 
goes  to  replace  those  church-members  who 
die,  and  to  keep  the  Church  itself  from  de- 
clining in  numbers  and  finally  dying  out 
altogether.  Only  what  is  in  excess  of  this, 
therefore,  represents  real  increase,  the  abso- 
lute gain  of  the  Church  upon  the  world. 

Now,  those  who  have  made  a  study  of  the 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  PROBLEM.  1/ 

matter,  taking  a  survey  of  the  whole  area 
of  Protestant  and  Evangehcal  Christendom, 
and  the  average  accessions  by  conversion 
for  the  half  century  past,  tell  us  that  the 
increase  is  about  seven  converts  yearly  to 
every  one  hundred  church-members.  If  this 
be  true,  —  and  it  tallies  with  such  conclu- 
sions as  we  have  been  able  to  make  from 
a  tolerably  broad  induction  from  facts, — 
we  are  making  such  slow  progress  toward 
the  world's  evangelization,  that  we  are  gain- 
ing from  the  world  only  about  four  new 
converts  a  year  for  every  hundred  professed 
disciples ! 

At  such  a  rate,  even  had  we  unlimited 
time  for  the  work,  it  would  take  half  a  mil- 
lennium of  years  for  the  thirty  millions  of 
Protestant  Christians  to  reach  the  half  of 
the  race  now  without  the  gospel.  The 
melancholy  fact  is  that  tlie  population  of 
the  world  is  more  rapid  in  its  increase  and 
displacement  than  the  Church  is  in  its  evan- 
gelizing march.  With  all  the  progress  made, 
after   all    the    triumphs    of  the    gospel,    and 


1 8  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

notwithstanding  all  the  open  doors  and 
multipHed  facihties  of  communication  and 
impression,  the  host  of  the  unsaved  is  un- 
doubtedly vaster  to-day  than  it  has  been  at 
any  previous  age  of  human  history. 

These  are  not  the  only  conditions  that 
complicate  the  great  problem.  The  C/mrck 
itself  lacks  piety  and  therefore  power.  We 
have  conceded  that  one  half  the  race  is  al- 
ready evangelized  ;  but  is  this  true?  There 
are  millions,  nominally  connected  with  Rom- 
ish, Greek  and  Oriental,  and  Protestant  and 
Occidental  communities,  and  even  churches, 
who  are  sunk  and  buried  in  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  virtual  idolatry.  There  are 
millions  more  who  have  a  form  of  god- 
liness, but  deny  the  power  thereof;  and  yet 
millions  more,  who  in  the  very  blaze  of  gos- 
pel light  live  in  irreligion,  immorality,  and 
infidelity. 

David  was  not  the  only  saint  who  has  run 
great  risk  in  "  numbering  the  people/'  Quan- 
tity is  no  guaranty  for  quality,  or  number 
and  measure  for  weicfht.     Even  in  Christian 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  PROBLEM. 


9 


communities   fearful  vices   and   sins    prevail. 
Recent  investigations  in  England    unearthed 
such  depths  of  moral  corruption  that  it  was 
not  thought  best  to  expose  the  full  facts  to 
public  gaze,  and  the  veil  of  silence  was  drawn 
over  the  worst  of  the  depravities  revealed  to 
those  w^ho  conducted  the  investigations.    The 
annual   holocausts  of  the   Moloch   of   Drink 
are  so  enormously  costly  that  figures  cannot 
represent  the  fearful  outlay.     The  orgies  of 
Venus  are  kept  side  by  side  with  the  orgies 
of  Bacchus,  under  the  shadows  of  our  courts 
of  law  and  churches  of  Christ.     The  old  land- 
marks of  the   Sabbath  are  swept  away,  and 
even    disciples    overstep    without    hesitation 
the  paling  of  divine  restriction  which   sepa- 
rates one  day  in  seven  unto  the  Lord.     Infi- 
delity winds  its  subtle  shining  coils  into  our 
periodical  and  scientific  literature,  the  chairs 
of  college-instructors  and  even  of  theological 
professors;   and  the  unmistakable  **  hiss  "  of 
the   serpent  may  sometimes   be  heard   even 
through    the  smooth,  persuasive    oratory   of 
so-called   "  pulplt-dlvlncs." 


20  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

It  is  this  low  type  of  piety  even  in  Chris- 
tian communities  and  churches  that  is  the 
main  hindrance  to  all  evangelism.  No  less 
a  man  than  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rice  of  Virginia 
boldly  said  that  four  fifths  of  the  member- 
ship of  our  churches  add  nothing  to  their 
real  power;  and  that  while  such  a  standard 
of  piety  prevails  evangelization  will-  not  be 
vigorously  carried  on,  for  God  would  not 
allow  such  a  type  of  Christianity  to  be 
widely  diffused  ! 

While  worldliness  pervades  the  lives  of 
nominal  disciples  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  which  is  the  spirit  of  missions, 
is  driven  out.  When  piety  ebbs  to  a  low 
level,  we  find  apathy  and  lethargy  as  to  the 
condition  of  lost  souls  growing  in  the  Church 
thick  as  rank  sea-weeds.  Where  Evangelical 
faith  loses  its  vitality,  evangelistic  work  loses 
its  vigor;  for  even  those  who  call  themselves 
disciples  begin  to  doubt,  if  not  to  deny,  the 
actual  lost  condition  of  men.  Take  away 
the  honest,  hearty  belief  that  without  Christ 
souls    are    lost,    and    you    have   broken   the 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  PROBLEM.  21 

mainspring  of  evangelistic  activity,  paralyzed 
the  nerves  both  of  sensation  and  motion. 
Upon  a  worldly  Church,  however  strong  nu- 
merically and  financially,  God  can  place  no 
dependence  for  pushing  the  evangelistic  cam- 
paign. Practically  the  earnest  workers  and 
warriors  are  the  few  who  live  under  a  sense 
of  the  power  of  the  world  to  come. 

Such,  then,  is  the  problem,  and  such  some 
of  the  factors  and  elements  which  enter  into 
and  complicate  it.  The  host  of  the  unsaved 
is  a  vast  multitude ;  human  life  is  very  brief, 
and  we  must  ''buy  up  opportunity;"^  the 
field  is  world-wide,  and  the  laborers  are  few ; 
the  progress  in  gathering  converts  is  lament- 
ably slow;  the  standard  of  piety  and  of 
morality  even  in  Christian  lands  is  lamenta- 
bly low ;  practical  indifference  as  to  the  peril 
of  lost  souls  is  eating  like  dry-rot  at  the  very 
foundations  of  evangelistic  effort,  —  and  who 
is  sufficient  for  these  things? 

When  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
Primate  of  all  England,  went  to  announce  to 

1  Eph.  V.  1 6,  Greek. 


22  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

the  youthful  Victoria  the  death  of  her  uncle, 
William  IV.,  and  her  accession  to  the  throne 
of  England  and  Hanover,  she  begged  him 
not  to  retire  until  he  had  prayed  with  her. 
Without  the  strength  of  God  she  did  not 
dare  attempt  to  bear  the  weight  of  such  a 
crown  and  sceptre.  Two  thousand  years 
have  almost  passed  since  the  ascending  Lord 
left  to  the  Church  the  responsible  trust  of 
giving  the  gospel  to  the  world,  and  that  trust 
is  not  yet  fulfilled.  Not  only  in  the  far-off 
lands  beyond  the  sea,  but  in  the  very  neigh- 
borhood of  Christian  churches  and  homes, 
men  and  women  are  living  without  God,  and 
without  the  gospel.  The  light  of  the  world 
has  no  more  reached  them  than  sunshine  has 
the  bugs  that  burrow  beneath  the  stones  by 
the  wayside.  How  shall  the  Church  of  Christ 
do  her  duty  to  the  dying  about  her  doors? 
How  turn  this  heavy  trust  into  a  sceptre  of 
power,  and  this  sacred  commission  into  a 
crown  of  glory?  There  must  be  a  neiv 
baptism  of  p7'ayer.  We  must  look  facts  in 
the   face,   confront  our  opportunity  and  our 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  PROBLEM.  23 

responsibility,  weigh  the  worth  of  immortal 
souls  in  the  scales  of  God,  and  measure  the 
power  of  the  gospel  by  the  might  of  Him  who 
gave  it.  Prayer  can  unlock  prison  doors  and 
make  shackles  to  fall  from  our  hands  and  feet, 
and  the  iron  gate  to  swing  open  of  its  own 
accord.  It  can  make  one  man  to  chase  a 
thousand,  and  two  to  put  ten  thousand  to 
flight.  When  God  gives  a  command,  the 
command  is  the  pledge  of  power  to  fulfil  it. 
All  we  need  is  to  take  up  the  work,  while  we 
lay  hands  on  the  arm  of  God  to  get  power, 
as  those  who  have  faith  in  prayer. 

At  the  outset  of  the  discussion  of  these 
tremendous  questions,  we  record  our  solemn 
conviction  that  the  best  organized  methods 
will  prove  only  massive  machinery  with- 
out an  adequate  motive  power,  unless  and 
until  there  come  upon  us  a  new  baptism 
from  above.  Dependence  on  our  own  en- 
deavor is  like  propelling  a  boat  by  puffing 
with  our  own  breath  at  the  sails,  or  like  mak- 
ing the  world  move  on  its  axis  by  pushing 
it  with  our  feet.     And  while  conductino;  this 


24  EVANGELISTIC  WORK. 

discussion,  the  author  devoutly  implores  for 
himself  and  his  reader  the  guidance  of  that 
Spirit  without  whom  the  eye  can  see  nothing 
clearly,  and  the  life  wield  no  sceptre  of  power 
for  the  salvation  of  man  and  the  glory  of 
God! 


THE  SCRIPTURAL   SOLUTION,  25 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   SCRIPTURAL   SOLUTION. 

HEN  God's  Tabernacle  was  to  be 
built,  all  things  were  enjoined  to  be 
"  according  to  the  pattern  "  showed 
to  the  great  leader  and  law-giver  of  Israel  in 
the  mount. 

In  every  spiritual  crisis  and  practical  per- 
plexity there  is  one  unfailing,  infallible  guide, 
—  the  oracles  of  God.  For  our  standards  of 
doctrine,  here  is  the  form  of  sound  words ; 
for  the  moulding  of  character,  here  is  the  di- 
vine matrix ;  ^  here  are  rules  to  regulate  our 
relations  to  the  world  and  to  the  Christian 
brotherhood ;  the  principles  upon  which  the 
church  is  founded,  and  by  which  its  activity 
is  to  be  inspired  and  governed :  for  all  things 
here  is  a  divine  pattern.     We  shall  not  turn 

1  Romans  vi.  17,  Greek. 


26  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

in  vain  to  the  Word  of  God  to  seek  a  satis- 
factory solution  to  the  evangehstic  problem. 

The  teaching  of  our  Lord  throughout 
makes  emphatic  the  duty  and  privilege  of 
every  saved  soul  to  become  a  saver  of 
others.  This  is  found,  not  so  much  in  any 
direct  injunction,  as  in  the  general  tone  and 
tendency  of  all  His  words.  The  conception 
of  the  believer  as  a  herald,  a  witness,  a 
winner  of  souls,  runs  like  a  golden  thread 
through  His  discourses,  and  even  His  para- 
bles and  miracles.  He  does  indeed  say  to  a 
representative  disciple,  "  Go  thou  and  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God ;  '^  ^  He  does  enjoin, 
"  Go  out  quickly  into  the  streets  and  lanes, 
highways  and  hedges,  and  compel  them  to 
come  in ;  "  but  the  command  is  one  which  is 
incarnated  in  His  whole  life  and  is  suggested 
or  implied  in  the  very  idea  of  discipleship : 
*'  Follow  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of 
men." 

Last  words  have  a  peculiar  emphasis.     It 
is  a  forceful  fact  that,  at  or  toward  the  very 

1  Luke  ix.  60. 


THE  SCRIPTURAL   SOLUTION.  27 

close  of  each  of  the  four  Gospels,  some  say- 
ings of  our  Lord  are  found  recorded  which 
touch  at  vital  points  of  contact  the  great 
question  we  are  now  considering.^  Harmo- 
nizing these  passages,  we  shall  find  the  divine 
pattern  for  the  work  of  a  world's  evangeliza- 
tion, —  a  perfect  plan  that  is  the  only  possi- 
ble basis  for  the  successful  conduct  of  the 
work.     It  includes  several  particulars :  — 

1.  Jerusalem  is  to  be  the  starting-point 
for  a  world-wide  campaign,  including  all  na- 
tions and  every  creature. 

2.  The  method  of  evangelization  is  three- 
fold:  preaching,  teaching,  and  testifying,  —  in 
other  words,  the  simple  proclamation  of  the 
gospel,  confirmed  by  the  personal  witness  of 
the  believer  as  to  its  power,  and  followed  by 
instruction  in  all  the  commands  of  Christ,  or 
the  training  of  converts  for  Christian  walk 
and  work. 

3.  Attached  to  the  command  is  a  promise, 
also  threefold  :   the  perpetual  presence  of  the 

1  Matt,  xxviii.  18-20;  Mark  xvi.  15-20;  Luke  xxiv.  45- 
49;  John  XX.  21,  22. 


28  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

Lord,  the  working  of  supernatural  signs,  and 
the  enduement  with  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

4.  It  is,  however,  to  be  especially  noted, 
that  neither  the  commission  nor  the  prom- 
ise is  hmited  to  the  apostles.^  Careful  com- 
parison of  Scripture  with  Scripture  puts  this 
beyond  any  reasonable  doubt.  Christ  need 
not  have  summoned  the  eleven  apostles, 
whom  He  had  already  met  in  Jerusalem,  to 
meet  Him  in  Galilee ;  but  it  was  there  that 
the  great  body  of  His  disciples  were  found, 
and  where  the  bulk  of  His  life  had  been 
spent.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  it 
was  on  this  Galilean  mountain  that  "  He 
was  seen  of  above  five  hundred  brethren  at 
once;"  and  to  them  all  He  said,  "Go,  make 
disciples." 

Here,  then,  is  God's  solution  to  man's 
problem.  Evangelization  is  to  be  in  a  two- 
fold sense  universal,  —  both  as  to  those  by 
whom,  and  as  to  those  to  whom,  the  Good 
Tidings  are  to  be   borne.     All  are  to   Go, 

1  Cf.  Matt,  xxviii.  16,  17,  with  i  Cor.  xv.  6,  etc. 


THE  SCRIPTURAL  SOLUTION.  29 

and  to  go  to  ALL.  The  ascending  Lord 
left  as  a  legacy  to  believers,  the  duty  and 
privilege  of  carrying  the  gospel  to  every 
living  soul  in  the  shortest  and  most  effective 
way.  To  accomplish  this,  two  grand  con- 
ditions must  exist:  there  must  be  evangelistic 
work  by  the  whole  Church,  and  there  must 
be  evangelistic  power  from  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Happily,  the  historic  witness  both  illus- 
trates and  confirms  the  scriptural.  Annibale 
Carraci  deftly  distinguished  the  poet,  as  paint- 
ing with  words,  and  the  painter,  as  speaking 
with  works.  What  Christ  sketched  in  lan- 
guage is  expressed  anew  in  the  "  Acts  of 
the  Apostles."  Pentecost  brought  to  all  the 
assembled  disciples  the  promised  enduement; 
then,  while  the  apostles  were  yet  at  Jerusalem, 
these  disciples,  scattered  abroad,  went  every- 
where preaching  the  Word.^  Mark  !  —  "  Ex- 
cept the  apostles!'  The  exception  is  very  sig- 
nificant, as  showing  that  this  *' preaching" 
was  confined  to  no  class,  but  was  done  by 
the  common  body  of  believers. 

1  Acts  viii.  1-4  ;  cf.  Acts  xi.  19,  20. 


30  EVANGELISTIC    WORK, 

Of  course  such  **  preaching  the  Word " 
impHed  no  necessity  for  special  training. 
To  many  modern  minds  the  word  *'  preach  " 
ahvays  suggests  a  ''  clergyman  "  and  a  **  pul- 
pit." A  ''sermon"  is  encased  not  only  in 
black  velvet,  but  in  superstitious  solemnity. 
There  is  absolutely  no  authority  for  any  such 
notions  in  the  New  Testament.  There  no 
line  is  drawn  between  "clergy"  and  "  laity," 
and  no  such  terms  or  distinctions  are  known. 

The  word  "  preach,"  which  occurs  some 
one  hundred  and  twelve  times  in  our  English 
New  Testament,  means  "  to  proclaim  ; "  it 
is  the  accepted  equivalent  for  six  different 
Greek  verbs.  Three  of  these  are  from  a 
common  root,  which  means  "  to  bear  a  mes- 
sage or  bring  tidings ;  "  ^  and  this  statement 
covers  about  sixty  cases.  As  to  the  other 
three  Greek  words,  one  is  used  over  fifty 
times,  and  means  "  to  publish  or  proclaim  ;  "^ 
and  another  six  times,  and  means  "to  say, 
speak,   or  talk    about."  ^     The    other,   which 

1  Evayy^XKca,  Karayy^Wu},    diayyeWw. 
".  Kripvaaeiy.  ^  AaXrjcrai. 


THE  SCRIPTURAL   SOLUTION.  31 

means  ''  to  dispute  or  reason,"  1  is  the  only  one 
of  the  six  which  suggests  a  foi'mal  discourse 
or  argument,  and  this  is  tiscd  only  tzvice. 

One  word  used  in  connection  with  the 
preaching  of  these  early  disciples  is  espe- 
cially suggestive.2  It  is  close  of  kin  to  the 
English  words  '*  prattle,"  "  babble,"  —  mean- 
ing to  use  the  voice  without  reference  to  the 
words  spoken;  it  is  one  of  those  terms 
found  in  every  tongue,  which  are  the  echoes 
of  children's  first  attempts  at  articulate  speech, 
and  it  conveys  forcibly  the  notion  of  unstud- 
ied utterance.  Those  humble  disciples  talked 
of  Jesus,  telling  what  they  knew.  That  was 
their  '*  preaching." 

There  is  nothing  in  the  word  *'  preach " 
which  makes  it  the  exclusive  prerogative  of 
any  order  or  class  to  spread  the  good  news. 
Even  Stephen  and  Philip,  who  not  only 
preached  but  baptized,^  were  not  ordained 
to  preach,  but  to  "  serve  tables  "  as  deacons. 
All  Jews  had  a  right  to   speak  in  the  syna- 

1   Aia^eyo/xai.  -  AaAew.      Acts  xi.  1 9,  20. 

3  Acts  viii.  5,  ^S. 


32  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

gogue,^  and  believers  spoke  freely  in  public 
assemblies.^  The  proof  is  positive  and  am- 
ple that  all  the  early  disciples  felt  Christ's 
last  command  to  be  addressed  to  them,  and 
sought,  as  they  had  ability  and  opportunity, 
to  publish  the  glad  news. 

Upon  this  primitive  evangelism  God  set 
His  seal,  confirming  it  with  signs  following 
and  adding  to  the  Church  daily.  To  such 
preaching  we  trace  the  most  rapid  and  far- 
reaching  results  ever  yet  known  in  history. 
Within  one  generation,  —  with  no  modern 
facilities  for  travel  and  transportation  and  for 
the  translation  and  publication  of  the  Word ; 
without  any  of  the  now  multiplied  agencies 
for  missionary  work,  —  the  gospel  message 
flew  from  lip  to  car,  till  it  actually  touched 
the  bounds  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Within 
one  century  the  shock  of  such  evangelism 
shook  paganism  to  its  centre ;  the  fanes  of 
false  gods  began  to  fall,  and  the  priests  of 
false  faiths  saw  with  dismay  the  idol-shrines 
forsaken  of  worshippers. 

^  Acts  xiii.  15.  2  I  Cor,  xiv.  26-40. 


THE  SCRIPTURAL  SOLUTION. 


33 


Subsequent  history  bears  an   equally  em- 
phatic witness,  but  it  is  by  way  of  contrast. 
No  sooner  had  evangelistic  activity  declined, 
than    Evangelical    faith  was    corrupted    with 
heresy,  and  councils  had  to  be  called  to  fix 
the  canons  of  orthodoxy;    confirmatory  signs 
ceased;    and    the    evangelistic    baptism    was 
lost  to  the  Church.     Under  Constantine  the 
Church  wedded   the  State, — the  chastity  of 
the   Bride   of  Christ  exchanged   for  the  har- 
lotry   of  this    world.       Via   crucis,    the    way 
of  the  cross,  became   via   hicis,  the  way  of 
worldly    light,    honor,    and    glory.      A    huge 
hierarchy,  parent  of  the  papacy,  rose  on  the 
ruins  of  the   apostolic  Church.     The  period 
of  formation  was  succeeded  by  one  of   de- 
formation, marked  by  putrefaction  and  petri- 
faction, or  the  loss  of  godly  savor  and  of  godly 
sensibility.     And  until  the  Reformation,  dark 
clouds   overhung   the   Church.     Heresy  and 
iniquity;    a    papal    system,   virtually  pagan; 
ignorance   and   superstition  as  bad  as  idola- 
try;    a    nominal    Church    of   Christ,    whose 
lamps   burned  low  and  whose  altar-fires  had 
3 


34  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

almost  gone  out,  —  such  was  the  awful 
sequence  when  habitual  work  for  souls 
declined. 

Too  much  stress  we  cannot  lay  upon  this 
joint  testimony  of  these  two  witnesses,  Scrip- 
ture and  History,  by  which  it  is  fully  estab- 
lished that  God  has  given  us  a  plan  for 
evangelizing  this  world,  and  that  the  plan  is 
entirely  feasible  and  practicable.  Our  Lord 
has  left  us  His  pattern  for  speedy  and  effec- 
tive work  for  souls.  So  far  and  so  long  as 
that  pattern  was  followed,  the  work  was  done 
with  wonderful  rapidity  and  success.  So  far 
and  so  long  as  that  pattern  is  superseded  or 
neglected,  every  other  interest  suffers.  The 
promised  presence  of  the  Lord  is  condi- 
tioned upon  obedience  to  the  command, 
**  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature."  To  neglect  souls 
is  treachery  to  our  trust  and  treason  to  our 
Lord.  No  wonder  Evangelical  soundness  is 
lost,  when  the  Church  shuts  her  ears  to  the 
cry  of  perishing  millions,  and  to  the  trumpet- 
call  of  her  divine  Captain. 


THE  SCRIPTURAL   SOLUTION. 


35 


To  primitive  methods  of  evangelism  the 
Church  of  to-day  must  return.  In  whatever 
calHng  the  disciple  is  found,  let  him  '*  therein 
abide  with  God."  Whatever  be  the  sphere 
of  common  duties,  let  all  believers  find  in  it 
a  sacred  vocation;  let  us  all  take  our  stand 
upon  the  common  platform  of  responsibility 
for  the  enlargement  and  extension  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  by  personal  labor. 

Let  us  not  invest  the  term  "  minister " 
with  a  mistaken  dignity.  It  never  conveys 
in  the  New  Testament  the  notion  of  supe- 
riority and  domination,  but  of  subordination 
and  service.  "  Whosoever  will  be  ereat 
among  you  shall  be  your  minister;  and  who- 
soever of  you  will  be  chiefest,  shall  be  ser- 
vant of  all."  ^  One  word  rendered  '•  minister  " 
means  "an  under-rower,"  ^  —  the  common 
sailor,  seated  with  his  oars  in  hand,  acting 
under  control  of  the  **  governor,"  or  pilot.^ 

Neander  shows  conclusively  that  Chris- 
tianity makes  all  believers  fellow-helpers  to 

1  Mark  x.  43,  44.  -  'TTTTjpeTTjs,  Acts  xxvi.  16. 

•^  Ewdiyj'w*/,  Jas.  iii.  4. 


36  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

the  truth,  and  that  a  guild  of  priests  is  for- 
eign to  its  spirit.^  Teaching  was  not  confined 
to  presbyters  or  bishops;  all  had  originally 
the  right  of  pouring  out  their  hearts  before 
the  brethren,  and  of  speaking  for  their  edifica-  • 
tion  in  public  assemblies.^  Hilary,  deacon  at 
Rome,  says  that,  in  order  to  the  enlargement 
of  the  Christian  community,  it  was  conceded 
to  all  to  evangelize,  baptize,  and  explore  the 
Scriptures.  Tertullian  says  that  the  laity 
have  the  right  not  only  to  teach  but  to 
administer  the  sacraments ;  the  Word  and 
sacraments  being  communicated  to  all,  may 
be  communicated  by  all  as  instruments  of 
grace ;  while  at  the  same  time,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  order  and  expediency,  this  priestly 
right  of  administering  the  sacraments  is  not 
to  be  exercised  except  when  circumstances 
require.^ 

This  chasm  between  "  clergy"  and  *'  laity" 

marks   a  rent  in   the   body   of  Christ.     The 

Church    began    as    a   pure    democracy,    but 

passed    into    an    aristocracy    and    finally    a 

1  Neander,  i.  179.  2  j^  135  3  j.  it)(3. 


THE  SCRIPTURAL   SOLUTION.  'i^'j 

hierarchy.  The  creation  of  a  clerical  caste 
is  a  matter  of  historic  development.  We  get 
a  glimpse  of  it  toward  the  close  of  the  second 
century.  Ignatius  would  have  nothing  done 
without  bishop,  presbytery,  and  deacon ;  and 
after  all  these  centuries  this  high-churchism 
still  survives. 

The  common  priesthood  of  believers  is  a 
fundamental  truth  of  the  New  Testament. 
Expediency  undoubtedly  restricts  the  exer- 
cise of  certain  rights,  but  never  the  right 
and  duty  of  bearing  the  good  tidings  to  the 
unsaved."  The  partial  purpose  of  these  pages 
is  to  show  that  only  by  a  return  to  God's 
original  plan  can  the  work  be  done.  After 
all  our  human  resorts  and  devices,  we  are 
nothing  bettered,  but  rather  worse ;  Is  it  not 
time  to  reach  out  the  hand  of  faith  and  touch 
the  hem  of  His  cfarment  ? 


38  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 


CHAPTER   III. 

DUTY   AND   DELIGHT. 

"  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead !   Follow  thou  me  !    Go 
thou  and  preach  the  kingdom  of  God !  "  ^ 

HAT  is  a  profound  saying  *'  Let  the 
dead  bury  their  dead  !  "  It  has  a 
deep  meaning;  if  at  first  it  seem 
dull  and  lustreless,  like  a  fragment  of  spar,  we 
have  only  to  turn  it  till  the  light  strikes  it  at 
the  "■  angle  of  reflection,"  and  it  will  show  rich 
hues.  "  Life  "  and  "  death  "  are  words  that 
span  the  infinities :  the  difference  between 
them  is  the  difference  between  holiness  and 
sin ;  the  distance  between  them,  the  distance 
between  heaven  and  hell. 

This  is  a  world  of  death.     The  dead,  who 
know  not  nor  feel  the  powers  of  the  world 
to    come,    may   well    be    left    to    bury   each 
1  Matt.  viii.  21,  22;  cf.  Luke  ix.  60. 


DUTY  AND   DELIGHT.  39 

Other ;  loft  to  magnify  the  material  and  mor- 
tal, as  all  burial  does.  But  for  those  who 
will  hear  and  heed,  Christ  has  a  message  of 
life.  First  of  all,  "  Follow  me !  "  for  ''  he 
that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  the 
darkness"  of  death  "but  shall  have  the  lifjht 
of  life."  Then,  "  Go,  preach  the  kingdom 
of  God  !  "  Having  the  spirit  of  life,  we  are 
to  speak  the  word  of  life.  Christ  came  not 
to  bury,  but  to  raise  and  quicken  the  dead; 
and  they  who  follow  Him  first  get  life,  and 
then  preach  Him  and  so  give  life.  Our  first 
duty  is  to  come  unto  Him  that  we  may  our- 
selves have  life,  and  leave  the  ranks  of  the 
dead  for  those  of  the  living;  our  foremost 
duty  and  our  highest  delight  must  then  be 
to  bring  other  dead  to  life;  instead  of  bury- 
ing them  more  deeply  from  sight  and  con- 
tact of  the  Lord  of  life,  we  must  take  away 
the  stone,  that  the  dead  may  hear  His  voice 
and  live  and  come  forth. 

Evangelization  is  simply  this,  —  rolling 
away  the  stone,  and  giving  the  dead  a  chance 
to  hear  the  word  of  life.     It  is  bringing  the 


40  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

evangel,  or  gospel,  into  contact  with  the 
unsaved;  and  it  is  for  contact,  not  co7ivcrsion, 
that  the  Church  is  responsible.  We  are  to 
do  our  part  and  leave  God  to  do  His. 

Paul  says :  *'  Christ  sent  me,  not  to  bap- 
tize, but  to  evangelize."  ^  Baptism  is  not 
to  be  reckoned,  like  repentance  toward  God 
and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,^ 
among  the  primary  terms  of  salvation ;  it  is 
a  sealing,  not  a  saving,  sacrament.  We  must 
not  lift  it  to  a  level  with  faith.  Faith  justi- 
fies the  soul  which,  in  believing,  appropri- 
ates Christ;  baptism  justifies  faith,  as  one 
of  its  fruits  and  proofs,  attesting  faith  as 
genuine. 

Every  child  of  God  may  truly  say, 
"  Christ  sent  me  to  evangelize."  This  is 
a  foremost  duty  and  may  be  the  highest 
delight.  To  evangelize  is  the  first  duty  in 
the  order  of  ti7Jic,  for  there  must  be  believers 
to  be  baptized,  and  converts  to  become 
confessors,  in  order  to  form  the  Church;  it 
is   first   in   the  order  of  importajice,  for  it  is 

1  I  Cor.  i.  17,  cvayyiWo/xai.  "^  Acts  xx.  21. 


DUTY  AND   DELIGHT.  41 

accession  and  growth  that  keep  the  Church 
in  being.  To  the  household  of  faith,  as  to 
the  family  of  man,  the  condition  of  continu- 
ance is  obedience  to  the  law  of  increase. 
The  propagation  which  keeps  God's  seed 
ahve  on  the  earth,  and  eventually  spreads 
that  seed  over  the  earth  and  subdues  it,  is 
evangelization.  Everything,  therefore,  both 
as  to  the  existence  and  enlargement  of  the 
Church  of  God,  hangs  on  evangelizing  men. 

The  Church  must  continually  **  go,  dis- 
ciple all  nations,"  becoming  to  human  souls 
everywhere  nursing  mother.  So  far  as  she 
fails  to  bring  the  gospel  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  unsaved,  she  disobeys  the  last  command 
of  her  Lord,  declines  in  spiritual  life,  forfeits 
her  commission,  and  risks  the  removal  of 
her  candlestick  out  of  its  place. 

That  other  duties  are  important  we  do  not 
deny,  but  we  do  affirm  that  the  importance 
of  evangelization  is  primary.  Our  Lord 
enjoined  upon  us  first  to  disciple  all  nations 
and  then  to  teach  them  to  observe  all  His 
commands.      Li   the   authorized   version   the 


42  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

two  Greek  verbs  ^  are  both  rendered  by  the 
same  word  "  teach,"  but  the  mistake  is  cor- 
rected in  the  Revision,  for  they  represent 
two  great  branches  of  our  duty  and  trust: 
first,  to  go  out  and  gather  in  disciples;  and 
then  to  teach  and  train  the  new  converts  in 
the  knowledge  and  practice  of  truth  and  duty, 
—  first,  to  "disciple"  men,  and  then  to  "  dis- 
cipline," or  develop  disciples  into  sanctified 
and  serviceable   workers. 

A  great  orator  and  sage,  Sydney  Smith, 
has  said  that  the  most  effective  figure  in 
rhetoric  is  repetition.  Probably  the  prin- 
ciples we  thus  lay  down  may  seem  axioms 
not  needing  demonstration,  and  scarcely 
requiring  statement;  but  familiarity  with 
truths  takes  away  their  force  and  blunts 
their  edge,  even  as  the  tread  of  many  feet 
wears  away  the  inscriptions  on  memorial 
pavements,  unless  from  time  to  time  they 
are  re-cut.  And  so  we  seek  to  give  greater 
emphasis  to  admitted  truths  by  frequent  and 
varied  statement.     As  with  mallet  and  chisel, 

1  MaSrjTeycroTe  and  5tSa(r/cofT6s,  Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20. 


DUTY  AND   DELIGHT.  43 

blow  on  blow,  we  would  cut  deeper  thiit 
great  inscription  on  the  very  threshold  of 
church  life,  "  Go,  evangelize  !  " 

The  Church  is  to  bear  and  rear  children  ; 
but  before  she  can  rear,  she  must  bear. 
There  are  pains  of  travail,  but  she  must  not 
shrink  from  the  throes  of  birth  through 
which  alone  God's  household  grows.  We 
have  seen  that  the  last  command  is  followed 
by  a  promise  of  His  presence.  The  precept 
and  promise  are  joined  by  a  living  link,  for 
only  as  the  precept  is  obeyed  can  the 
promise  be  enjoyed.  If  the  Church  is 
faithful  in  making  and  training  disciples,  she 
basks  in  the  sunshine  of  His  smile.  If  zeal 
in  evangelizing  gives  place  to  cold  neglect 
of  souls,  her  sun  suffers  obscuration  if  not 
eclipse,  so  surely  does  He  withhold  or  with- 
draw the  tokens  of  His  gracious  presence 
and  glorious  power.  The  glory  of  the 
Shechinah  pales  whenever  passion  for  souls 
gives  place  to  cold  indifference. 

In  various  ways,  by  forms  and  figures 
both  forcible  and  beautiful,  the  great  Head 


44  EVANGELTSTIC   WORK. 

of  the  Church  has  sought  to  impress  this 
double  duty  of  evangehzation  and  edifica- 
tion. Two  laws  of  church  life  are  expressed 
and  enforced  throughout  the  New  Testa- 
ment: first,  the  law  of  inward  growth,  and 
secondly,  the  law  of  outward  extension. 
This  is  the  key  to  much  of  the  teaching  of 
our  Lord  and  of  His  apostles.  In  the 
interview  between  the  risen  Redeemer  and 
His  disciples,  recorded  by  John,^  we  find 
first  a  word  of  salutation,  "  Peace  be  unto 
you ;  "  then  a  word  of  commission,  "  As 
my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I 
you;"  and  then  a  word  of  conferment, 
'*  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  not 
only  gives  the  commission,  but  He  bestows 
the  power  to  carry  it  out,  —  a  divine 
enduemcnt. 

The  work  is  great,  but  for  it  we  have 
conferred  by  Him  both  authority  and  ade- 
quacy. The  Church  long  since  came  to 
her  Damascus  and  had  her  vision  of  the 
Holy     One.       She    needs     no     longer    ask, 

1  John  XX.  19-22. 


DUTY  AND   DELIGHT.  45 

"Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?" 
for  He  has  set  before  her  the  primary  duty. 
With  pierced  hands  He  points  to  the  mil- 
lions who  have  not  even  heard  His  name, 
and  says,  "  Go  out  into  the  streets  and 
lanes,  the  highways  and  hedges,  and  compel 
them  to  come  in !  " 

When  Mr.  Webster,  at  the  laying  of  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill  shaft,  be- 
sought the  vast  concourse  of  people  to 
"  stand  back,"  lest  the  crowd  should  break 
down  the  speaker's  platform  at  peril  of  life 
or  limb,  —  the  answer  was,  "  It  is  impossi- 
ble !  "  *'  Impossible?"  thundered  the  Amer- 
ican Demosthenes,  "  Nothing  is  impossible 
at  Blinker  Hill !  "  And  when  we  remember 
who  gave  us  our  marching  orders,  and  who 
left  us  the  pledge  of  His  perpetual  presence; 
when  we  stand  beside  that  cross  on  which 
He  bore  our  sins,  and  remember  that  He 
is  the  propitiation  for  the  whole  world, ^  — 
we  dare  not  talk  of  impossibilities.  In  the 
lexicon    of  the    Christian    life    there    is    and 

^   I   John  ii.  2.     Revised  version. 


46  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

there  ought  to  be  no  such  word  as  "  fail !  " 
Nothing  is  impossible  at  Calvary  / 

Canon  Wilberforce  tersely  puts  in  four 
words  the  whole  law  of  Christ,  —  "admit, 
submit,  commit,  transmit."  The  first  three 
concern  the  relation  of  the  believer  to  his 
Lord.  He  is  to  admit,  to  his  mind  and 
heart,  the  truth  and  Him  w4io  is  the  truth; 
submit  his  wayward  will  to  His  will ;  and 
commit  all  things  in  trust  to  His  keeping. 
The  last  of  these -four  words  expresses  the 
relation  of  the  believer  .to  his  fellow-men : 
henceforth  he  is  to  transmit;  to  become 
the  medium  through  whom  by  lips  and  life, 
the  light  and  love  of  God  shall  be  trans- 
mitted to  others.  In  these  four  words  all 
the  duties  of  the  disciple  are  briefly  summed 
up  and  comprehended.  They  are  the  car- 
dinal points  in  the  horizon  of  his  spiritual 
life. 

We  are  called  not  to  be  saved  only,  but  to 
save.  The  watchword,  the  very  motto  on 
the  banner  of  the  Church,  is  service.  The 
chief  end  of  man  is  "  to   glorify  God  and  to 


DUTY  AND   DELIGHT.  47 

enjoy  Him  forever:"  to  glorify  Him  is  the 
necessary  preparation  for  the  highest  en- 
joyment of  Him.  The  work  is  committed  to 
the  weak;  God  hath  chosen  the  poor  and 
base  and  despised,  —  those  who  are  nothing 
in  the  eyes  of  men,  that  all  dependence  may 
be  upon  Him  and  all  glory  be  to  Him. 

God  calls  every  disciple  to  direct  effort  to 
save  men.  The  confession  of  Christ  with 
the  mouth,  the  preaching  of  Christ  in  the 
life,  the  translation  of  faith  and  hope  and 
love  into  living  forms,  and  of  precept  into 
practice,  —  all  this  is  a  mighty  witness  for 
Him  and  His  gospel,  but  it  docs  not  exhaust 
the  demands  of  duty.  The  command  covers 
more  than  this :  it  means  personal  work  for 
souls. 

The  methods  are  so  various  that  they  are 
not  defined  or  prescribed  ;  but  they  embrace 
the  whole  range  of  opportunity,  the  whole 
scope  of  possibility.  From  the  lisping  in- 
fant in  the  cradle  to  the  savage  cannibal 
on  the  isle  in  the  sea,  we  are  to  see  in 
every    human    being    a    soul    to    be    taught 


48  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

the  way  of  salvation.  In  the  quiet  home 
and  the  busy  mart,  in  rural  retreats  or  city 
streets,  at  workman's  bench  or  school-boy's 
desk,  wherever  a  child  of  God  confronts 
a  child  of  man,  there  must  be  a  voice  to 
speak  because  there  is  an  ear  to  hear.  Even 
prayer  is  not  effectual,  energetic,^  which  does 
not  lead  us  to  do  something.  Till  the  field 
at  your  feet,  and  send  others  to  till  the 
fields  which  you  cannot  reach.  Only  thus 
will  the  world-field  ever  be  sown  with  the 
seed  of  the  kingdom,  and  wave  with  har- 
vests for  God.  We  have  too  much  faith 
in  God  to  believe  that  He  would  leave  to 
us  a  work  which  we  cannot  do.  A  loyal 
soldier  of  England's  Queen,  when  asked  how 
long  it  would  take  the  British  army  and 
navy  to  carry  a  proclamation  from  Her 
Majesty  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  replied, 
"  About  eighteen  months."  We  have  no 
conception  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
flag  of  the  cross  could  be  borne  to  the 
limits   of  the   globe,   if  the   enterprise   were 

^  Ja.s.  V.  16,   ii/ipyou/jiii/')]. 


DUTY  AND  DELIGHT. 


49 


really  undertaken  by  the  whole  body  of 
behevers.  In  1835,  '^"^  Hamburg,  seven 
men  in  a  shoemaker's  shop  resolved  to  at- 
tempt in  person  to  spread  the  good  news. 
Within  twenty  years  they  had  organized 
fifty  churches,  gathered  ten  thousand  con- 
verts, scattered  half  a  million  Bibles  and 
eight  million  pages  of  tracts,  and  preached 
the  gospel  to  fifty  millions  of  people.  At 
that  rate,  two  hundred  and  fifty  disciples 
could  reach  the  whole  population  of  the 
globe  in  thirty  years ! 

If  to-day  there  were  but  five  hundred  dis- 
ciples on  earth,  and  each  of  them  and  of 
their  converts  should  bring  to  Christ  one 
soul  each  year,  by  this  simple  geometrical 
progression  the  number  of  converts  would 
swell  so  fast,  as  to  include  the  whole  race 
in  twelve  years.  Or  if  there  were  but  one 
disciple  and  he  should  be  the  means  of 
converting  one  soul  each  year,  and  every 
new  convert  do  the  same,  thirty  years  would 
multiply  the  number  to  more  than   thirteen 

hundred  millions. 

4 


50  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

What  does  all  this  show?  That  the  bulk 
of  professing  disciples  neglect  this  foremost 
duty  to  a  dying  world,  and  practically  do 
110  tiling  IV  hat  ever  in  eliscipling  others.  In 
the  question  of  personal  salvation,  service 
is  forgotten.  One  fixes  his  thought  on 
worldly  treasures  and  pleasures,  and  buries 
himself  out  of  sight  and  contact  of  the  lost, 
in  the  sepulchre  of  self-indulgence  ;  another 
turns  his  thought  to  heavenly  treasures  and 
pleasures,  but  it  is  all  about  his  own  salva- 
tion that  he  thinks.  This  is  all  selfishness. 
The  miser  and  the  monk  are  alike:  each 
lives  for  himself,  and  for  himself  seeks  to 
lay  up  treasures;  only  the  treasures  differ 
in  kind.  It  is  a  vicious  type  of  piety  that 
idly  sits  and  sings, 

"  When  I  can  read  my  title  clear,"  etc. 

Service  is  self-  abnegation,  self-  oblivion. 
Moses  was  willing  to  be  blotted  from  God's 
Book,  and  Paul  could  wish  himself  accursed 
from  Christ,  rather  than  have  Israel  cast 
away  forever.      He  who   would   save   others 


DUTY  AND   DELIGHT.  5  I 

must  not  be  unduly  absorbed  in  saving  him- 
self. He  who  seeks  first  the  kingdom  of 
God  will  find  his  own  salvation  added  to 
him,  without  fail. 

To  you  and  me  then  is  committed  a  dis- 
pensation of  the  gospel.  If  we  do  this  thing 
willingly  w^e  have  a  reward,  but  if  against 
our  will,  nevertheless  there  is  the  solemn 
commission.  If  there  be  some  who  cannot 
'*  go  into  the  dark  mine,"  like  Carey,  they 
can  "  hold  the  rope,"  like  Fuller.  But  woe 
is  me,  if  in  some  way  or  other  I  preach  not 
the  gospel  to  a  dying  world  ! 


52  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

WEIGHTS   AND   WINGS. 

HAT  is  a  beautiful  myth  which  repre- 
sents the  birds  as  at  first  created 
without  wings.  Clothed  in  rich 
plumage  and  endowed  with  sweet  voices, 
they  could  not  fly.  Then  God  made  the 
wings  and  bade  the  birds  go,  take  up  and 
bear  them  as  burdens.  At  first  they  seemed 
a  heavy  load,  but  as  they  lifted  them  to 
their  shoulders  and  folded  them  over  their 
breasts,  lo !  they  grew  fast.  The  burdens 
became  pinions,  and  that  which  once  they 
bore,  now  bore  them  up  to  the  heights  of 
cloudless  day.  They  Could  now  soar  as 
well  as  sing. 

We  are  the  wingless  birds,  and  our  duties 
are  the  pinions.  When  at  God's  beck  we 
first  assume  them  they  may  seem  but  bur- 


WEIGHTS  AND    WINGS.  53 

dens.  But  if  we  cheerfully  and  patiently 
bear  them  they  become  less  and  less  a  load. 
His  yoke  becomes  easy  and  His  burden 
light;  and  so  we  who  once  were  slaves 
become  the  Lord's  freemen,  and  mount 
up  with  wings  as  eagles.  Duty  has  become 
delight.  The  weights  on  the  feet  of  the 
athlete  have  turned  to  winged  sandals  on 
the  feet  of  him  that  bringcth  good  tidings, 
like  the  talaria  of  Mercury,  the  messenger 
of  the  gods. 

When  God  made  each  believer  a  mes- 
senger of  the  gospel,  He  had  at  heart  not 
only  the  salvation  of  the  lost,  but  the  best 
good  of  the  believer.  We  are  all  naturally 
like  the  snail;  we  carry  our  little  world 
upon  our  back,  and  venture  out  of  our 
shell  only  to  pick  up  dainty  morsels.  God 
puts  us  in  the  midst  of  the  unsaved,  that 
we  may  get  out  of  ourselves;  He  might 
send  His  angels  to  fly  in  the  midst  of  the 
heavens  and  proclaim  the  everlasting  gos- 
pel, but  what  would  become  of  the  be- 
liever?    He  would  be  a  dwarf  and  a  cripple. 


54  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

The  reflex  influence  of  evangelistic  effort 
upon  the  Church  itself,  is  scarcely  less  im- 
portant and  valuable  than  the  direct  influ- 
ence upon  unsaved  souls.  While  then  this 
universal  responsibility  cannot  be  avoided 
or  evaded,  there  should  be  no  desire  to 
escape  it,  for  in  it  lie  the  secrets  both  of 
growth  and  of  joy. 

Growth  is  the  law  of  all  life,  and  action  is 
the  law  of  growth.  The  tree  grows  because 
there  is  motion  in  its  cells,  action  among 
its  atoms;  and  so  the  root  fibres  strike 
downward,  the  stem  fibres  upward  and  out- 
ward, and  the  sap  courses  up  and  down. 
Beneath  a  silence  which  is  like  the  hush  of 
death,  God  hears  the  tread  of  life,  and  we 
see  the  proof  in  leaf  and  bud,  in  bloom  and 
fruit.  The  silence  is  only  the  secret  cover- 
ing life,  the  hiding  of  its  power.  A  human 
limb  that  is  not  used  cannot  grow,  but 
withers  and  shrivels;  the  blood  is  stagnant, 
life  is  dormant,  waste  is  no  more  replaced 
by  supply ;  all  healthy  development  depends 
on   life's  endless   revolutions.     It   is   the  one 


WEIGHTS  AND    WINGS.  55 

uniform  law  in  every  sphere  of  life,  that 
powers  are  impaired,  weakened,  and  finally 
lost  by  the  lack  of  exertion  and  exercise. 
Stagnation  breeds  decay. 

Natural  law  has  its  correspondent  in  the 
spiritual  world :  "  To  him  that  hath  shall  be 
given  and  he  shall  have  abundance;  but 
from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away 
even  that  which  he  hath,"  or  "  seemeth  to 
have."  God's  law  is,  Use  or  lose.  There 
is  nothing  good  which  is  not  lessened  and 
lost  at  last  by  not  using.  In  God's  econ- 
omy disuse  is  misuse,  abuse.  Selfishness 
and  self-absorption  swell  our  worse  self  and 
shrink  and  shrivel  our  better  nature.  Self- 
denying  service  ~  work  for  God  and  for 
souls  —  shrinks  whatever  is  unworthy  of  us, 
and  feeds  and  fattens  that  other  and  nobler 
self. 

And  so  Paul  said :  "  Herein  do  I  exer- 
cise myself."  He  was  the  athlete,  making 
weak  and  flabby  muscles  hard  and  firm  and 
strong  and  sinewy.  Our  spiritual  life  finds 
its  gymnastics  in  work  for  souls.     The  field 


56  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

is  the  world ;  and  work  in  it  not  only  gets 
a  crop,  but  makes  the  sower  and  reaper 
more  a  man  and  more  a  saint.  It  is  thus 
that  an  intelligent  disciple  feels  and  knows 
that  lost  souls  need  his  labor  scarce  more 
than  he  needs  it;  as  a  devoted  Methodist 
bishop  has  said,  "  It  is  not  merely  how  may 
I  save  others,  but  how  may  I  save  myself." 
Self-love  drives  and  draws  the  child  of  God 
into  service.  The  idleness  which  shuts  us 
up  to  a  self-indulgent  lazy  ease,  shuts  the 
channels  of  the  soul  to  the  influx  of  the 
life  of  God.  No  wonder  the  **  first  love  " 
is  left !  He,  who  like  Paul,  from  the  hour 
of  conversion  starts  to  win  souls,  cannot 
lose  or  leave  his  first  love,  save  to  find  a 
second  and  better;  everything  left  behind 
by  such  a  disciple  is  only  a  goal  gained, 
and  becoming  a  starting-point  for  another 
goal  farther  on.  He  not  only  saves  his 
soul,  but  saves  his  life. 

Yes,  all  growth  comes  of  action.  Grace, 
as  well  as  nature,  says  so.  We  see  a  truth 
with  clearer  eyes,  for  trying  to  make  others 


WEIGHTS  AND    WINGS.  57 

see  it.  We  lift  our  load  more  easily  for 
helping  others  bear  their  burdens.  The  true 
giver  never  fails  to  get  back:  he  gets  in 
giving.  If  not  paid  back  in  his  own*  coin, 
God's  royal  bounty  pays  him  in  heaven's 
own  shekels.  He  gives  goods,  and  gets 
good ;  he  gives  a  word  of  instruction  and 
gets  knowledge,  or  a  word  of  cheer  and 
gets  joy;  he  gives  a  lift  and  gets  lifted, 
gives  a  tear  and  gets  his  own  tears  wiped 
away.  This  is  giving  bread  and  water, 
and  getting  ambrosia  and  nectar;  giving  a 
copper,  and  getting  a  mine  of  gold  and 
gems. 

So  does  nature  teach  and  enforce  that 
second  lesson  of  grace,  that,  as  there  is  no 
growth  without  action,  so  there  is  no  joy 
without  growth. 

It  is  the  still  pond,  not  the  running  stream, 
that  freezes.  The  union  of  cold  and  quiet 
gives  thick  ice,  but  the  rapid  current  of  the 
brook  cannot  freeze  solid  ;  if  the  frost  gets 
hold  of  it  at  all,  it  is  only  to  spread  it  with 
crystal  which   really  keeps    it   warm;    while 


58  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

if  the  current  be  rapid  enough,  hke  the 
rushing  torrent,  it  defies  the  cold,  or  if  it 
freezes  at  all  it  is  motion  congealed,  —  the 
very  ice  is  the  image  of  life. 

You  are  neglecting  souls ;  you  are  cold 
and  hard  and  joyless,  because  the  dull,  dead 
stagnation  of  selfishness  has  left  you  to 
freeze  solid.  What  you  need  is  currejit. 
Your  spiritual  life  must  have  motion,  action ; 
if  it  runs  it  will  sing;  there  will  come  the 
murmur  of  music,  a  deep  sweet  peace  like 
that  of  God,  a  joy  like  unto  that  which  even 
Christ  set  before  Him. 

These  figures  of  speech  must  not  veil  the 
thought  they  are  meant  to  reveal.  All  this 
is  but  expanding  the  old  maxim  of  Dr. 
Duff,  that  ''to  cease  to  be  evangelistic  is 
soon  to  cease  to  be  Evangelical."  When 
work  for  the  souls  of  men  declines  or  ceases, 
the  way  is  open  for  every  doctrinal  and  prac- 
tical error. 

Shaftesbury  said  to  an  assembly  of  young 
men,  "  Depend  upon  it,  whatever  you  think 
when  you  are   young  and  stirring,  the   time 


WEIGHTS  AND    WINGS.  59 

will  come  when  you  will  take  counsel  with 
your  gray  hairs,  and  you  will  then  bless  God 
if  your  career  has  been  one  by  which  your 
fellows  have  been  benefited  and  God  hon- 
ored ;  and  if  you  have  endeavored  as  much  as 
lay  in  your  power  to  advance  His  holy  name, 
and  to  do  good  to  all  that  were  within  reach 
of  your  influence.  Nothing  is  more  likely 
to  keep  you  fj'oni  miscJiief  of  all  kinds,  from 
miscUief  of  action,  of  speculation,  from  every 
mischief  that  you  can  devise,  than  to  be  ever- 
lastingly engaged  in  some  great  practical  work 
of  good.  Christianity  is  not  a  state  of  opin- 
ion and  speculation.  Christianity  is  essen- 
tially practical,  and  I  will  maintain  this,  that 
practical  Christianity  is  the  greatest  curer 
of  corrupt  speculative  Christianity.  No 
man,  depend  upon  it,  can  persist  from  the 
beeinninc:  oi  his  life  to  the  end  of  it  in  a 
course  of  self-denial,  in  a  course  of  gener- 
osity, in  a  course  of  virtue,  in  a  course  of 
piety,  and  in  a  course  of  prayer,  unless  he 
draws  from  his  well-spring,  unless  he  is  draw- 
ing from  the  fountain  of  our  Lord  Himself. 


6o  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

Therefore    I    say  to    you,   again    and    again, 
let  your  Christianity  be  practical."  ^ 

We  have  nowhere  met  wiser  words. 
''  The  fruitful  bough  whose  branches  run 
over  the  wall,"  is  that  which  grows  from  a 
strong,  well -rooted,  vigorous  and  healthy 
stock  on  the  other  side.  The  foremost  dis- 
ciples in  spiritual  attainment  are  the  fore- 
most in  unselfish,  persistent,  untiring  work 
for  souls.  Nothing  makes  our  experience 
here  as  the  days  of  heaven  upon  earth,  like 
the  consciousness  of  being  used  of  God  to 
win  souls.  Even  Christ  Himself  is  fully  sat- 
isfied only  when  He  sees  of  the  travail  of 
His  soul,  and  beholds  His  countless  seed. 
How  slow  we  are  to  learn  that  the  divine 
secret  of  joy  is  filling  up  that  which  is 
behind  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  in  be- 
coming ourselves  the  messengers  of  His 
saving  grace,  and  the  means  of  making  that 
grace  effectual  to  the  salvation  of  others. 
One  may  well  be  crucified  with  Christ,  in 
order  to    be   glorified   together;    and   this  is 

1  Ilodder's  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  i.  327,  328. 


WEIGHTS  AND    WINGS.  6 1 

taking  up  the  cross  and  following  Him,  to 
be  willing  to  be  what  He  was,  and  to  do  as 
He  did,  to  bring  many  sons  unto  glory. 

No  man,  perhaps,  in  all  Christian  history, 
has  shown  more  devotion  to  Christ  and  to 
souls  than  the  apostle  Paul.  He  surren- 
dered all  things  for  the  sake  of  sharing  in 
the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings.  But  his 
renunciations  w^ere  far  overbalanced  by  his 
compensations,  and  the  epistle  to  the  Philip- 
pians  is  his  balance-sheet.  What  things 
were  gain  to  him,  those  he  counted  loss  for 
Christ,  laboring  incessantly,  and  becoming  all 
things  to  all  men,  that  by  all  means  he  might 
save  some.  Yet  his  life's  key-note  was  "  Re- 
joice in  the  Lord ;  "  and  he  who  went  down 
into  the  lowest  depths  to  lift  up  the  fallen,  is 
the  man  who  was  caught  up  into  the  third 
heaven,  and  heard  what  it  is  unlawful  to  utter. 

There  is  then  a  double  need  of  evangeli- 
zation. Only  thus  can  the  wide  world  ever 
be  reached  by  the  gospel  message,  and  only 
thus  can  the  true  life,  health,  growth,  and 
joy  of  disciples  be  promoted  and  secured. 


62  EVANGELISTIC    WO  UK. 

God  needs  every  believer  in  the  work 
of  discipline  others.  This  is  not  Hmiting 
God ;  what  He  might  do,  and  what  He  will 
do,  are  two  different  questions.  His  de- 
clared plan  is  and  always  was,  to  use  the 
disciple  as  a  witness  for  Him  and  a  winner 
of  souls.  There  never  was  or  will  be  a 
body  of  ordained  preachers  large  enough 
to  evangelize  this  world  without  the  help  of 
the  great  body  of  disciples.  Generals  and 
captains  may  plan  a  campaign  and  conduct 
an  engagement,  but  it  is  the  rank  and  file 
that  do  the  marching  and  the  fighting. 
Every  torpid  church  or  idle  Christian  is  a 
hindrance  to  Gods  cause,  and  a  help  to 
the  enemy  of  God  and  man ;  a  dead  weight 
upon  the  usefulness  of  those  who  are  will- 
ing to  work,  and  a  block  upon  the  chariot 
wheels  of  God.  He  who  anywhere  neglects 
work,  everywhere  delays  work.  The  Church 
at  home  is  the  engine  of  the  whole  ma- 
chinery of  the  work  abroad.  What  if  there 
be  no  adequate  motor  to  keep  the  wheels 
revolving?       And   what    of    the    indifferent 


WEIGHTS  AND    WINGS.  6^ 

disciples  who  throw  on  the  fire  more  water 
than  fuel? 

When  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  painted  Sarah 
Siddons  as  "the  Tragic  Muse,"  he  placed 
his  own  name  on  the  skirt  of  her  robe, 
content,  as  he  said,  to  go  down  to  posterity 
on  the  hem  of  Mrs.  Siddons's  garment.  If 
we  but  knew  the  present  joy  and  the  future 
glory  of  those  that  turn  many  to  right- 
eousness, we  should  be  willing  to  take  the 
lowest  place  among  all  those  who  have  part 
in  this  work,  which  is  the  only  one  that 
angels    envy. 


64  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER   V. 

POWER   IN    PREACHING. 


ND  now,  gentlemen,"  said  the  first 
President  of  the  Royal  Academy, 
as  he  brought  to  a  close  those 
consummate  lectures  on  Art,  "  I  have  but 
one  name  to  present  to  you :  it  is  the  name 
of  the  incomparable  Michael  Angelo." 

The  central  secret  of  all  successful  evan- 
gelism, in  its  last  analysis,  is  the  constant 
presentation  of  the  One  and  only  *'  Name} 
given  under  heaven  among  men  whereby 
we  must  be  saved."  The  very  word  "  evan- 
gelism "  implies  that  all  must  primarily  and 
ultimately  depend  upon  the  faithful  preach- 
ing of  Christ  crucified.  To  this  all  other 
means  and  methods  must  be  tributary  and 
subsidiary.  But  terms  are  not  always  used 
^  Acts  iv.  12. 


POWER  IN  PREACHING.  65 

intelligibly,  and  as  we  have  all  drifted  more 
or  less  from  our  original  moorings,  it  may 
be  well  to  ask  what  is  meant  by  *'  preaching 
the  gospel"?  Much  so-called  preaching  for 
some  reason  fails  to  reach,  touch,  move,  and 
mould  men  for  a  better  life,  or  at  most  carries 
no  converting  power.  Paul  has  left  us  his 
model  for  effective  preaching,  and  hinted  some- 
what as  to  its  matter,  manner,  and  mission.^ 

Its  subject-matter  is  "  Christ  crucified." 
The  medicine  of  God  for  all  the  wants  and 
woes  of  man  is  the  cross :  to  preach  the 
gospel  is  to  lift  up  the  Lamb  of  God  where 
all  may  look  and  live.  Even  John  the  Baptist 
was  content  to  be  only  a  voice  crying,  a 
finger  pointing :   "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God." 

The  very  heart  of  the  gospel  is  a  fact. 
"  He  bare  our  sins."  That  fact  is  closely 
linked  with  four  effects:  a  death  unto  life, 
a  bringing  unto  God,  a  redemption  from  sin, 
a  deliverance  from  the  world.^  This  grand 
fact  is  the  central  theme  of  all  true  preach- 

1  I  Cor.  i.  17-31. 

-  I  Pet.  ii   24;   iii.  iS  ;    Titus  ii.  14;    Gal.  i.  4. 

5 


66  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

ing,  the  stem  around  which  crystaUizes  the 
science  of  salvation.  It  is  not  enough  to  hft 
up  Christ  as  an  example,  the  model  for  a 
"  reconstructed  manhood."  The  rallying- 
point  and  the  radiating-point  of  both  doc- 
trine and  life  is  the  CROSS.  This  is  the 
golden  milestone  in  the  Forum  of  the  Ages, 
where  all  roads  meet.  From  all  quarters 
sinners,  seeking  to  be  saved,  must  come  to 
it;  to  all  quarters,  saints  seeking  to  save, 
must  move  from  it ;  and  it  is  on  our  way  to 
the  cross  as  penitent  sinners,  or  on  our  way 
from  the  cross  as  witnessing  saints,  that  we 
find  every  need  of  man  met  and  every  vital 
question  answered. 

'*  Christ  crucified  "  is  no  narrow  theme. 
As  the  God-man,  all  that  is  in  God  is  in  Him, 
and  all  that  is  in  man  is  in  Him,  save  sin; 
and  combining  both.  He  adjusts  all  the  mu- 
tual relations  of  God  and  man.  From  His 
cradle  to  His  cross,  and  from  His  cross  to 
His  crown,  all  our  experience  is  represented 
and  illustrated.  He  is  the  power  and  wis- 
dom of  God,   for  He  offsets  our  impotence 


POWER  IN  PREACHING.  6/ 

and  ignorance.  Man's  sin  springs  partly 
from  the  incapacity  of  the  natural  man  and 
partly  from  the  hostility  of  the  carnal  mind.^ 
Its  cure  cannot  be  found,  therefore,  either  in 
the  power  or  wisdom  of  man,  and  all  attempts 
at  self-help  and  self-rescue  have  been,  and 
ever  must  be,  dismal  and  disastrous  failures. 
The  providential  mission  of  the  two  great 
nations  of  antiquity  was  to  show  man's  weak- 
ness and  folly.  Roman  civilization  stood  for 
law  and  arms ;  its  watchword  w^as  Pozver. 
Greek  civilization  stood  for  letters  and  art; 
its  watchword,  Wisdom.  Both  those  nations 
rotted  in  their  own  vices  and  drew  the  vul- 
tures to  the  prey  by  the  scent  of  their  decay. 
Well  might  Paul  not  be  ashamed  to  present 
to  the  Roman,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and 
to  the  Greek,  Christ  the  wisdom  of  God. 

He  who  would  discuss  evangelism  must 
be  true  to  his  own  convictions ;  the  place  is 
holy  ground,  and  He  who  dwells  in  the  Bush 
demands  truth  in  the  inward  parts.  Can- 
dor and  a  good  conscience  demand  that  we 

1  Cf.  I  Cor.  ii.  14,  and  Rom.  viii.  7. 


68  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

record  our  deep  and  deliberate  conviction 
which  reaches  to  the  roots  of  our  being,  that 
there  will  be  no  marked  advance  in  evangel- 
istic work,  witJioiit  more  emphatic  and  exclusive 
preaching  of  Christ  crucified.  The  themes 
treated  in  the  modern  pulpit,  as  well  as  the 
sensational  announcements  by  which  they  are 
heralded,  often  make  us  blush  with  shame. ^ 
They  are  travesties  upon  preaching.  The 
connection  of  many  a  so-called  "  sermon " 
with  the  Word  is  fictitious  or  factitious ;  the 
robe  of  a  tawdry  rhetoric  is  substituted  for  a 
divine  simplicity  of  speech ;  for  lack  of  spe- 
cific gravity,  specific  levity  abounds,  and  the 
pulpit  becomes  a  place  for  secular  entertain- 
ment, if  not  of  clownish  buffoonery. 

A  popular  and  even  a  profitable  lecture  is 

1  Take  the  pulpit  notices  for  one  week:  "Confidence," 
"  Dynamite  under  the  Throne,"  "  Bible  Laws  at  Business," 
"  Ideals  of  Manhood,"  "  Why  She  came  to  the  Kingdom," 
"Scientific  Scepticism,"  "Taking  Account  of  Character," 
"  Would  the  Virgin  Mary,  St.  Peter,  or  St.  Patrick  attend  a 
Catholic  Church  ?"  "  Forcibleness  of  Right  Words,"  "  Sins 
Covered  at  Pompeii,"  "Ethics  of  Marriage,"  "Conditions 
of  Power,"  "  Success  in  Life,"  "  Up  a  Tree,"  "  Short  Beds 
and  Narrow  Coverings,"  "How  to  choose  a  Wife,"  etc. 


POWER  IN  PREACHING.  69 

not  always  fit  for  the  pulpit.  Preaching  is 
the  unfolding  of  a  scripture-germ,  —  a  *'Thus 
saith  the  Lord."  The  true  preacher  thinks 
God's  thoughts  after  God.  By  searching  the 
Word,  and  comparing  spiritual  things  with 
spiritual,  he  gets  at  the  mind  of  God.  This 
germ  he  buries  in  his  heart,  till  by  holy, 
prayerful  meditation  it  is  made  to  grow,  to 
germinate.  The  Word,  first  born  of  God,  is 
born  again  of  man ;  it  becomes  incarnate  in 
his  conviction  and  affection,  and  so  in  his 
speech.  '*  Expression  is  the  result  of  im- 
pression ;  "  the  power  of  the  former  will  cor- 
respond to  the  depth  of  the  latter,  as  in  the 
tree  the  expanse  of  the  branches  above 
ground  corresponds  to  the  expanse  of  the 
roots  below  ground. 

The  true  sermon  has  a  divine  genesis ;  it 
begins  in  God.  The  Spirit  broods  over  the 
mind,  till  the  chaos  of  dim  perceptions  and 
confused  conceptions  is  resolved  into  order. 
God  says,  ''Let  light  be,"  and  light  is.^  Then 
comes  separation  between  heavenly  and 
1  Gen.  i.  3,  Hebrew. 


70  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

earthly  things,  and,  Hke  stars  in  a  cloudless 
sky,  celestial  glories  appear,  and  there  is 
revealed  a  firmament  of  radiant  splendor. 

The  preaching  that  has  such  a  Genesis  will 
end  in  an  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  Christ,  a  reve- 
lation of  the  crucified  and  glorified  One, 
which  fits  a  man  to  speak  to  the  churches 
with  strange  authority  and  power.  The  Word 
of  God,  alive  with  the  thought  of  God,  has 
taken  root  downward  and  bears  fruit  upward. 
It  is  no  mere  intellectual  growth,  branching 
into  analytic  argument  and  blooming  into 
flowers  of  rhetoric.  The  hearer  instinctively 
feels  that  such  preaching  is  a  more  than 
human  product,  —  a  burning  bush,  aglow  with 
the  mystic  flame  before  which  reverence 
removes  the  sandals  of  criticism. 

So  it  has  ever  been.  The  preaching  which 
God  uses  to  convert  men  lifts  Christ  cruci- 
fied, and  finds  the  secret  of  its  power  in  turn- 
ing the  eyes  of  men  to  Him  alone.  The 
Master  Himself  has  left  us  our  first  and  last 
lesson  in  homiletics :  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up  from    the  earth,   will   draw  all  men  unto 


POWER   IN  PREACHING.  yi 

me."^  The  preacher  is  a  mediator  between 
God  and  man,  His  mouthpiece,  His  ambas- 
sador. He  must  hear  the  Word  at  His  mouth 
and  then  speak  that  Word  as  nearly  as  possi- 
ble just  as  he  hears  it  from  God. 

This  is  the  germinal  law  of  the  sermon. 
There  must  be  that  preparation,  above  all, 
which  is  scriptural  and  spiritual.  To  learn 
to  do  this  work  easily  is  the  peril  of  the 
preacher.  Facility  and  felicity  in  the  merely 
literary  processes,  and  fluency  and  beauty 
in  utterance,  are  often  mistaken  for  pulpit 
power.  The  homiletical  faculty  is  substituted 
for  a  mind,  heart,  tongue,  infused,  suffused, 
transfused  with  that  Spirit  who  is  the  breath, 
the  light,  the  life  of  the  Word.  The  intel- 
lectual and  human  crowds  out  the  spiritual 
and  divine. 

Such  preaching  will,  of  course,  be  power- 
less to  save  and  sanctify,  for  a  stream  rises  to 
no  higher  level  than  its  source.  Preaching, 
when  it  is  instinct  with  God's  power,  is  the 
spreading  of  God's  truth  over  the  whole  man, 

J  John  xii.  32. 


72      '  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

till  it  touches  intellect,  sensibilities,  affections, 
conscience,  will  ;  but  we  can  apply  truth  to 
others  only  so  far  as  it  has  first  been  applied 
to  ourselves.  God's  word,  in  order  to  be 
effective,  must  have  the  man  behind  it  as 
well  as  before  it,  and  come  forth  backed  by 
a  rich  personal  experience,  a  co-ordinate 
testimony  from  the  inward  life  of  the 
preacher. 

This  is  what  we  have  called  the  gcrmhial 
lazu  of  the  sermon.  It  must  get  its  theme 
and  the  essentials  of  its  treatment  from  the 
teachings  of  the  Word  and  of  the  Spirit. 
Then  there  is  the  preparation  for  that  preach- 
ing which  has  the  power  of  God. 

To  this  germinal  law,  wc  add  a  terminal 
law.  There  is  a  certain  end,  or  terminus,  to 
be  kept  in  view.  A  sermon  is  sermo,  a 
speech  having  a  definite  aim,  a  result  in 
the  convictions,  affections,  resolutions  of  the 
hearer.  As  the  germinal  law  gives  the  start- 
ing-point, the  terminal  gives  the  goal  of 
sacred  discourse.  There  must  be  a  terminus 
ad  quern  as  well  as  a  terminus  a  quo. 


POWER  IN  PREACHING.  73 

In  pulpit  oratory  there  are  three  elements, 
either  of  which  may  control :  the  text,  the 
subject  or  theme,  and  the  object  or  end 
aimed  at.  If  the  text  rule,  the  result  is  an 
exposition  or  exegesis  ;  if  the  subject,  an 
essay  or  discourse ;  if  the  object  to  be  at- 
tained be  steadily  kept  in  view,  and  control 
the  disposition  of  the  parts  and  the  expres- 
sion and  delivery,  we  get  properly  a  sermon. 

The  first  thing  to  be  fixed,  in  framing  the 
normal  sermon,  is,  therefore,  the  end  or  result 
to  be  readied ;  then  we  are  ready  to  choose 
the  best  subject  to  reach  the  object,  and  the 
best  text  to  develop  the  subject.  Other 
methods  may  be  and  are  employed  with 
some  success,  but  not  with  the  highest  suc- 
cess. If  a  man  starts  with  a  subject  which 
he  proposes  to  treat,  he  runs  the  risk  of 
accommodating  the  text  to  the  theme  rather 
than  the  theme  to  the  text.  In  some  such 
cases  the  notion  which  is  the  germ  of  the 
sermon  is  found  in  the  preacher's  brain  rather 
than  in  the  mind  of  God,  and  the  use  of 
Scripture  is  sometimes  so  foreign  to  its  origi- 


74 


EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


nal  purport  and  purpose  that  it  becomes  a 
caricature.  Others  start  with  a  text  which 
seems  attractive  or  effective,  and  it  is  elabo- 
rated into  an  exposition  more  or  less  instruc- 
tive and  profitable.  But  if,  in  the  course  of 
its  treatment,  no  other  end  is  kept  in  view, 
there  is  risk  of  merely  displaying  ingenuity 
and  originality  in  interpretation,  interesting 
and  perhaps  instructing  the  hearer,  but  not 
grappling  with  his  conscience  and  will,  as  in 
the  most  energetic  and  effective  oratory. 

The  careful  study  of  the  preachers  who 
have  wielded  most  spiritual  power  will  show 
that,  although  their  methods  are  often  de- 
fective and  even  crude,  they  are  always  seek- 
ing after  souls ;  they  may  set  all  homiletical 
and  even  grammatical  laws  at  defiance,  but, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  there 
is  a  definite  purpose,  evolved,  perhaps^  in  the 
process  of  making  or  preaching  the  sermon, 
which  purpose  reacts  upon  the  product. 
Many  a  discourse  which  began  in  the  viola- 
tion of  this  fundamental  law  of  the  sermon, 
has   been   remodelled  while  it  was  wrought. 


POWER   IN  PREACHhWG.  75 

He  who  started  with  a  topic  or  a  text  ends 
with  an  all-engrossing  object,  —  the  saving  or 
sanctifying  of  souls,  the  only  object  that 
can  produce  the  ideal  sermon. 

If  we  are  to  have  a  new^  era  of  power  in 
preaching,  we  must  have  a  more  definite  re- 
sult, toward  which  all  else  moves.  An  essay 
may  be  ingenious,  and  an  exposition  original, 
and  yet  lack  oratorical  power;  as  Whately 
said,  the  man  "  aims  at  nothing,  and  hits  it." 
Above  all  others  the  preacher  needs  the 
power  of  an  engrossing  purpose.  Then 
Betterton's  remark  to  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
London  will  no  longer  have  point  ;  that 
while  *'  actors  speak  of  things  imaginary  as 
though  real,  preachers  speak  of  things  real 
as  though  imaginary."  ^ 

These  germinal  and  terminal  laws  we  be- 
lieve to  be  fundamental  to  preaching-power; 
could  they  become  governing  laws,  they 
would  revolutionize  modern  preaching.     We 

1  Betterton's  original  epigram  was : 

"  You,  in  the  pulpit,  tell  a  story  ; 
We,  on  the  stage,  show  facts." 


J 6  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

have  given  emphasis  to  them,  for  it  has 
''  pleased  God  by  the  fooHshness  of  preach- 
ing to  save  them  that  beheve."  The  pulpit 
is  the  main  agent  in  cva^igelisationy  and  to 
raise  or  lower  its  standard  is  to  help  or  to  hin- 
der every  other  form  of  active  effort  to  save 
souls.  When  the  ''  preachers  of  the  gospel  " 
are  content  to  preach  the  gospel;  when  Christ 
crucified  is  their  theme,  and  is  treated  **  in  a 
crucified  style ;  "  when  the  germ  of  every  ser- 
mon is  some  seed-thought  of  God  that  has 
found  root  in  the  heart  and  borne  fruit  in  the 
speech ;  when  the  aim  of  every  sermon  is  to 
glorify  Christ  in  saving  and  sanctifying  souls, 
and  toward  that  end  every  thought  and  word 
and  gesture  converge,  —  we  shall  see  results 
of  which  even  Pentecost  was  but  a  prophecy 
and  foretaste. 

In  the  assault  on  Fort  Pulaski,  every  ball 
in  that  first  volley  of  seventy  guns  struck 
within  a  circle  twelve  feet  in  diameter.  Down 
came  the  flag !  Of  what  use  to  resist  such  a 
fire  !  Many  a  flag  of  Satan  would  be  hauled 
down  if  our  guns  were  pointed  in  one  direc- 


POWER  IN-  PRE  A  CHIANG.  77 

tion  and  shot  upon  shot  were  hurled,  heavy 
and  hot,  against  the  walls  of  his  citadel.  The 
gospel  is  still  the  power  and  the  wisdom  of 
God  unto  salvation.  There  is  no  promise  that 
man's  word  shall  not  fail ;  but  "  My  word,  " 
says  God,  "shall  not  return  unto  me  void."  ^ 
Again  we  affirm  it — would  that  it  were 
with  a  clarion  peal  as  loud  as  the  trump  of 
Gabriel! — we  must  have  a  thoroughly  Evan- 
gelical, if  we  are  to  have  a  thoroughly  evajt- 
gelistic,  pulpit.  Men  must  be  drawn  not  to 
us,  but  to  the  Cross,  and  to  us  only  that  they 
may  through  us  be  drawn  to  Christ.  Those 
attractions  only  are  legitimate  in  the  preacher 
that  make  the  Cross  effective.  Let  us  have 
the  gospel  unmixed  with  human  philosophy, 
poetry,  rhetoric,  and  apologetics.  It  is  the 
mixture  of  incongruous  material  that  makes 
brittleness.  That  preaching  that  corrupts 
and  adulterates  God's  gospel  with  man's 
wisdom  lacks  consistency  and  coherence,  and 
is  doomed  to  practical  failure. 

"I  preached  philosophy  and  men  applauded: 
I  preached  Christ  and   men  repented." 

^  Tsa.  Iv.  iq. 


78  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

The  facts,  rather  than  the  philosophy,  of 
redemption  we  are  to  preach.  We  are  to 
speak  the  truth  on  the  authority  of  a  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord."  Lowering  God's  Word  into 
a  comparison  and  competition  with  systems 
of  human  teaching  sacrifices  this  unique  au- 
thority. The  primary  test  of  human  systems 
is  found  in  their  appeal  to  my  reason  and 
conscience ;  the  primary  appeal  of  the  gos- 
pel is  found  in  the  fact  that  God  speaks. 
The  philosophy  of  His  scheme  of  salvation 
is  too  deep  for  me ;  even  the  angels  desire  to 
look  into  the  deep  things  of  God.  I  may, 
like  Nicodemus,  ask  Jiozv  or  zvJiy  these  things 
are  so,  but  to  my  question  God  answers  only 
by  solemn  and  emphatic  repetition,  "  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  thee."  So  must  w^e  dare 
to  preach  with  authority,  as  ambassadors  of 
God.  There  has  never  been  an  era  of  pulpit 
power  except  with  such  conditions,  and  there 
never  will  be. 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  79 


CHAPTER   VI. 

WISDOM    OF   WORDS. 

NE  of  the  mysteries  of  chemistry  is 
iietitralization,  the  process  whereby 
the  peculiar  properties  of  one  sub- 
stance are,  by  another,  destroyed  or  rendered 
inert  or  imperceptible.  Thus,  acids  and  alka- 
lies more  or  less  completely  neutralize  each 
other.  Combinations  may  from  harmless 
elements  produce  poisons,  or  render  poisons 
harmless.  Mr.  Froude  says  that  prussic  acid 
is  formed  of  the  same  elements,  combined  in 
the  same  proportions,  as  gum-arabic.^  Hydro- 
gen, that  most  combustible  gas,  and  oxygen, 
that    great    feeder    of    combustion,    unite    to 

1  Short  Studies,  page  178.  The  statement  seems  inac- 
curate. Hydrocyanic  acid  =  Nitrogen  14+  Carbon  12  + 
Hydrogen  I.  Gum-arabic  =  Oxygen  52.09+  Carbon 41.4  + 
Hydrogen  5.51. 


80  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

form  water,  the  foe  of  combustion  ;  while 
nitrogen,  the  *'  lazy  giant,"  and  oxygen,  the 
very  spirit  of  energy,  hold  each  other  in 
check  in  the  atmosphere. 

It  is  possible  to  render  neutral  and  in- 
effective even  the  vital  truths  of  redemp- 
tion. Paul  wrote  to  Corinth  that  he  would 
not  preach  the  gospel  ''with  wisdom  of  words, 
lest  the  cross  of  Christ  should  be  made  of 
none  effect!'  Even  the  gospel  may  be  neu- 
tralized by  foreign  mixtures  ;  matter  is  not 
independent  of  manner.  There  is  a  way  of 
preaching  even  Christ  crucified  that  prevents 
spiritual  power. 

Two  great  questions  arise  as  to  evangelistic 
preaching:  How  shall  it  be  made  attractive, 
and  How  shall  it  be  made  effective.  We  must 
draw  and  hold,  before  we  can  win  and  mould 
men.  Paul  touches  a  vital  point;  he  hints 
that  there  is  a  sort  of  attractiveness  which 
sacrifices  effectiveness,  —  something  mixed 
with  God's  medicine  to  make  it  more  palata- 
ble, that  destroys  its  corrective  and  curative 
properties. 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  8 1 

In  the  apostle  we  have  a  man  naturally 
vain  and  ambitious,  and  having  a  double 
culture  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  schools,  who 
successfully  resisted  a  subtle  temptation  which 
has  proved  to  many  a  preacher  the  fatal  fruit 
of  a  forbidden  tree.  Men  of  great  powers 
have  often  veiled  the  homely  gospel  message 
behind  the  golden  and  silver  tissues  of  ornate 
speech,  corrupted  the  wisdom  of  God  with 
the  wisdom  of  man;  or  dazzled  by  a  show 
of  genius,  and  robed  spiritual  truth  in  the 
scholastic  gown  of  secular  learning,  as  though 
it  were  but  a  higher  school  of  human 
philosophy. 

The  preaching  that  lacks  simplicity  makes 
the  Cross  of  none  effect,  by  lifting  it  above 
the  level  of  the  average  man.  When  the 
gospel  is  robed  in  unsanctified  rhetoric,  at- 
tention is  diverted  from  the  Christ  to  the 
*^  Chrysostom,"  the  golden -mouthed  orator. 
Such  preachers,  like  the  Pharisees,  ''have  their 
reward ;  "  they  call  forth  a  cold  intellectual 
assent,  awaken  an  esthetic  pleasure,  kindle  a 
sentimental  glow,  perhaps  even  an  enthusi- 
6 


82  EVANGELISTIC   WORK, 

astic  ardor  and  fervor ;  but  they  fail  to  pierce 
the  heart  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  which 
is  the  Word  of  God.  That  sword  proves 
Hving  and  powerful,  not  when  worn  in  the 
sheath  of  scholarly  culture,  or  when  swung 
in  air  to  show  the  flashing  gems  with  which 
learning  decks  it,  but  when  drawn  from  its 
scabbard  and  thrust  naked  into  the  hearer's 
heart.  Nettleton  slowly  repeated  the  text, 
**  I  thought  on  my  ways,  and  turned  my  feet 
unto  Thy  testimonies,"  and  before  he  "  began 
to  speak,"  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  had  already 
pierced  his  audience.  A  Scotch  preacher 
has  said  that  it  is  always  some  word  of  God 
that  smites  the  sinner,  and  that  man's  words 
on\y  feather  God's  arrow,  that  it  may  ** carry" 
straight  to  the  mark. 

If  the  sermon  is  the  unfolding  of  a  Scrip- 
ture germ,  it  will  naturally  take  largely  even 
a  Scripture  form.  As  to  the  sprouting  grain, 
so  to  the  seed  of  His  own  truth  God  giveth 
its  own  body ;  hence  Paul  says,  ''which  things 
also  we  speak,  not  in  words  which  man's 
wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  83 

teacheth."  ^  He  conceived  of  the  gospel  as 
having  a  dialect  of  its  own.  Effective  preach- 
ing gets  not  only  its  idea,  but  its  form  of 
speech,  from  above.  Unction  begins  in  a 
vital  insight  into  truth  and  then  imparts 
an  utterance  which  is  of  the  Spirit;  first 
the  anointed  eyes  and  then  the  anointed 
tongue. 

Paul  not  only  confined  himself  to  themes 
which  have  their  root  in  Christ  crucified,  but 
he  would  not  present  even  those  themes  with 
wisdom  of  words,  lest  the  human  rhetorician 
or  scholastic  philosopher  should  displace  the 
divine  ambassador  and  thus  the  Cross  be 
made  of  none  effect.  He  gave  divine  truth 
its  own  celestial  body,  and  so  the  glory  was 
not  terrestrial,  but  celestial  ;  men  heard 
heaven's  message  in  heaven's  dialect  and 
gave  glory  to  God  alone. 

May  not  much  of  the  ineffectiveness  of 
modern  preaching  find  an  explanation  in  the 
attempt  to  make  it  attractive  and  effective 
by  mingling  with  it  wisdom  of  words  ?     The 

1  I  Cor.  ii.  13. 


84  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

pulpit  of  to-day  is  largely  loyal  to  the  truth. 
Probably  at  no  time  since  the  Reformation 
has  Christ  been  more  generally  preached. 
But  often  the  fashion  of  the  message  fails  to 
fit  its  form  and  feature ;  the  truth  is  some- 
times robed  in  a  ''  garment  spotted  by  the 
flesh."  We  grieve  the  Spirit  by  the  lack  of 
faith  in  the  power  of  God's  Word  and  of 
God's  Spirit  to  convert  and  transform.  We 
forsake  exposition  and  exegesis  for  philoso- 
phy and  apologetics.  Drawn  down  by  the 
challenge  of  cultured  critics  and  scientific 
sceptics,  we  vainly  seek  to  cope  with  these 
**  Syrians  "  upon  the  plain,  and  to  fight  them 
with  human  weapons  on  their  own  level. 
But  the  whole  history  of  evangelism  shows 
that  even  scientists  and  sceptics  are  not  so 
won.  Theremin  is  right:  *' Eloquence  is  a 
virtue ; "  and  the  virtue  that  wrestles  most 
powerfully  with  the  foes  of  the  truth  is  not 
the  wisdom  of  the  scholar  or  the  magnetism 
of  the  orator,  but  the  simple  witness  of  him 
who  speaks  what  he  knows  and  testifies  what 
he  has  seen;   whose  power  to  convince  and 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  85 

persuade  is  the  fact  of  being  himself  con- 
vinced and  persuaded. 

The  master  dialecticians  and  rhetoricians 
have  never  been  the  greatest  winners  of  souls. 
There  was  a  preacher  who  died  a  half  century 
ago,  whose  pulpit  orations  outshone  in  splen- 
dor any  others  of  his  day,  yet  though  master- 
pieces of  argument  and  analysis,  they  were 
not  fruitful  in  conversions ;  while  the  seraphic 
Whitefield,  wielding  the  simple  truth  of  God 
with  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  warmed  even 
the  cold  calculating  Franklin,  and  the  philo- 
sophical sceptical  Hume.  There  is  an  evan- 
gelist of  our  own  day  —  a  man  of  one  Book, 
of  whom  men  say,  "Howknoweth  this  man 
letters,  having  never  learned?"  who  takes  no 
pride  in  either  his  grammar  or  his  rhetoric, 
and  whose  refined  pastor  once  counselled  him 
to  keep  silence  —  who  has  been  moving  two 
continents  by  simply  holding  up  the  Cross  ! 

We  fear  that  the  drift  of  discussion  and  the 
very  training  of  ministers  are  largely  toward 
a  vicious  standard  of  pulpit  power.  Students 
are  told  to  cultivate  a  high  literary  style,  to 


86  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

aim  at  eloquence.  Such  terminology  has 
too  much  of  the  worldly  savor  and  flavor. 
The  pulpit  is  no  place  for  literary  display. 
God  bids  us  set  up  the  unhewn  altar  that 
men  may  look  only  at  the  slain  lamb  upon 
it.  He  who,  like  Ahaz,  brings  into  God's 
courts  the  elaborate  carved  Damascene  altar, 
may  hear  men  praise  him,  but  he  will  see  the 
Shechinah  grow  dim.  Preaching  is  a  divine 
vocation,  and  its  power  is  of  God.  The 
preacher's  style,  like  that  of  Atticus,  "when 
unadorned  is  most  adorned;"  like  a  maiden, 
sweeter  without  paint  and  perfumery.  Buffon 
said,  **  Le  style  !  C'est  I'hommc  !"  VVe  would 
go  further:  style,  in  the  true  preacher,  is 
God  speaking  through  him ;  it  is  what  he  is 
as  a  man  of  God,  an  anointed  messenger  of 
God,  inspired  to  utter  His  message. 

As  to  eloquence,  Pascal  doubted  whether 
preaching  presents  a  proper  field  for  elo- 
quence save  in  the  sense  of  speech  that  is 
thrilled  by  the  power  of  a  supernatural  con- 
viction and  persuasion.  This  cultivation  of 
style,  this  aspiration  after  eloquence,  tend  to 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  8/ 

self -consciousness.  Instead  of  being  absorbed 
in  the  truth  and  in  passion  for  souls,  the 
preacher  becomes  hypercritical.  A  slip  of 
pen  or  tongue,  an  ungrammatical  or  un- 
rhetorical  blunder  or  blemish,  annoys  and 
disconcerts  him  ;  while  on  the  other  hand 
a  musical  sentence  decorously  wrought  and 
sonorously  uttered,  a  figure  ingeniously  elab- 
orated, an  original  thought  flashing  its  bril- 
liance, pleases  his  carnal  nature,  and  awakens 
self-complacency.  Such  vexation  and  such 
satisfaction  alike  divert  the  mind  of  the 
ambassador  of  God  from  his  divine  voca- 
tion and  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit;  such  pride 
and  such  humiliation  are  equally  unseemly, 
and,  like  a  godless  repentance,  need  to  be 
repented  of. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  certain  nameless 
charm,  a  mysterious  power,  that  invests  the 
anointed  preacher,  which  is  known  as  ttnc- 
tion.  Its  nature  is  a  mystery;  but  one  thing 
is  sure,  tmction  and  self-conscionsness  neve?' 
go  together.  He  whom  God  fills  forgets 
himself,  and  whatever   recalls  him    from  this 


88  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

self-unconsciousness  hinders  the  free  flow 
of  God's  power  through  him;  and,  seeing 
that  this  is  so,  the  godly  preacher  habitu- 
ally cultivates  this  holy  engrossment,  for 
the  sake  of  the  divine  endowment  and 
enduement. 

In  fact,  the  sense  of  the  awful  responsibility 
of  preaching  is  itself  enough,  when  truly 
awakened,  to  lead  to  self-oblivion. 

'•i-It  is  curious,"  said  Prof.  George  Wilson, 
"  this  feeling  of  having  an  audience,  like  clay 
in  your  hands,  to  mould  for  a  season  as  you 
please.  It  is  a  terribly  responsible  power." 
Responsible  indeed  !  '*  Probation  "  is  that 
period  of  the  soul's  life  when  as  yet  the  final 
decision  is  not  yet  made,  either  for  or  against 
God :  to  choose  one  way  is  salvation ;  to 
choose  the  other  way  is  damnation.  Hence, 
zvJiile  the  man  of  God  is  preacJiing,  a  hearer's 
probation  may  end  and  his  salvation  or  dam- 
nation begin.  "  Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things?"  While  the  preacher  turns  aside  to 
indulge  a  flight  of  poetic  fancy,  elaborate  a 
figure,    indulge    a    pleasantry,    or    create    a 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  89 

diversion,  he  is  giving  way  to  Satan,  who 
stands  at  every  priest's  right  hand  to  resist 
him ;  and  in  that  fatal  moment  he  loses  his 
grip  upon  a  soul  almost  persuaded ;  his  hand 
lets  up  its  pressure  just  as  the  scale  is  turning 
for  God ! 

When   a  preacher  gets   such  a   conception 
of  preaching  it  lifts  him  above  criticism ;   it 
inspires  that  fear  of  God  which  makes  him 
fearless  of  man,  intrepidly  indifferent  to  either 
compliment  or  censure.      It  becomes  irrev- 
erent impertinence  in  the  hearer  to  pull  out 
his  watch  when  the  half-hour  is  up,  as  though 
a  discourse  born  of  God,  and  having  a  definite 
end,  could  be  arbitrarily  cut  off  at  the  expira- 
tion of  thirty  minutes  while  as  yet  the  argu- 
ment and  the  appeal  are  incomplete.      The 
true  preacher  does  not  bow  to  the  caprice  of 
his  hearer,  nor  yield  to  the  senseless  clamor 
for  short  sermons.     A  crystal  of  truth,   like 
any  other  crystal,  must  be  cleft  according  to 
its  seams :  a  sermon  that  has  an  end  to  reach, 
and   stops    short  of  it,   is  a  failure    as  truly 
as  a  sermon  that    reaches   its   true   end  and 


90  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

highest  impression,  and  then  grows  weaker 
by  going  beyond  its  proper  close. 

Brethren  of  the  ministry,  and  all  who  preach 
this  gospel,  let  us  go  into  the  darkness  where 
God  dwells  and  get  His  whispered  message ; 
then  what  we  have  heard  in  the  darkness,  in 
the  ear  in  the  closet,  let  us  proclaim  in  the 
light,  in  the  ears  of  many,  from  the  house- 
tops. Let  us  cultivate  a  divine  self-oblivion. 
He  who  aims  at  wisdom  of  words  may  hear 
the  shouts  of  the  multitude  praising  the 
beauty  of  his  bow  and  arrows  and  the  grace 
with  which  he  handles  them ;  but  it  is  only 
when  we  lose  ourselves  in  God  that  we  hear 
the  groans  of  the  wounded,  which  are  the 
supreme  test  of  the  archer's  skill,  and  remind 
us  of  the  fabled  shrieks  of  the  mandrake 
when  it  is  pulled  up  by  the  roots.  He  who 
is  to  plead  with  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God 
should  come  out  of  God's  Pavilion  with  that 
chrism  of  a  celestial  presence  which  makes 
even  the  face  to  shine. 

There  is  a  way  of  preaching  that  carries 
power;    but  it  is  not  an  invention  of  human 


WISDOM  OF   WORDS.  91 

oratory.  Rhetoric  and  logic,  poetry  and 
philosophy,  genius  and  culture,  cannot  in 
their  best  combination  assure  that  kind  of 
power.  It  must  be  gotten  waiting  upon 
God  in  the  silence,  secrecy,  solitude,  of  the 
Holy  of  Holies  where  God  dwells. 


92  EVANGELISTIC    WORK, 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    SECULAR    SPIRIT. 


HETORICIANS  treat  of  a  'Maw  of 
accommodation,"  in  accordance  with 
which  the  orator  is  to  descend  and 
condescend  to  his  audience, — to  get  down  to 
their  level  in  order  to  lift  them  up  to  his. 

This  may  do  in  rhetoric,  but  it  involves 
risk  in  religion.  During  the  whole  history 
of  God's  ancient  Israel  and  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  the  subtlest  of  all  snares  has  been  this 
plausible  law  of  accommodation.  Adopting 
worldly  maxims,  catering  to  worldly  tastes, 
corrupted  by  worldly  leaven,  there  has  been 
a  gradual  letting  down  of  the  severe  standard 
of  New  Testament  piety,  and  a  constant  effort 
to  robe  the  gospel  in  worldly  charms,  in  order 
to  attract  worldly  men  to  the  church. 

The  pulpit  has,  by  this  law  of  accommoda- 
tion, been  lowered,  at  tinies,  into  a  platform 


THE  SECULAR  SPIRIT.  93 

for  lectures  more  becoming   the  lyceum,   or 
into  a  stage  for  performances  more  fit  for  the 
theatre.     The  service   of  song,  in   deference 
to   the    dictation    of  this  worldly   spirit,   has 
dropped  into  a  display  of  mere  artistic  talent, 
the  appeal   to   aesthetic   taste    displacing  the 
divine  savor  and  flavor  of  worship ;    so  that 
in    His  house,    where    the    Lord    alone  is  to 
be    exalted,     •*  classical    music  "    is    exalted, 
papists   and    pagans    are    hired   to    lead    the 
praise   of   Protestant   worshippers,    and    pro- 
fane   organists    use   the    grandest    of  instru- 
ments   to    dissipate    holy    thoughts    and   im- 
pressions.    We  build  gorgeous  gothic  fanes, 
furnished  with   crimson   and  gold,  garnished 
with  the   artist's  pencil  and  chisel;   then    we 
secure    for   the    pulpit  the    princes    of    ora- 
tory,  and  for  the  choir  the  star   singers    of 
the    opera  ;    then  we    multiply  concerts   and 
chorals,    fairs    and    festivals,    entertainments 
and    excursions;     and    by    such   allurements 
hope  to    draw    the  people  and    to  "  evange- 
lize the  masses."     But  the  hope  is  found  to 
be  delusive. 


94  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

These  worldly  expedients  have  proved 
very  successful  in  secularizing  the  Church, 
but  have  sadly  failed  in  evangelizing  the 
world.  They  do  not  even  draw  the  people 
except  so  far  and  so  long  as  their  novelty 
attracts  curiosity  seekers,  or  feeds  the  morbid 
appetite  for  excitement.  It  is  time  all  such 
measures  were  abandoned  as  helps  to  the 
work  of  evangelization.  They  are  rather 
hindrances ;  for  they  destroy  the  peculiar 
character  of  God's  people  as  a  separate  people, 
they  divert  attention  from  eternal  things,  and 
they  grieve  the  Spirit  of  God,  on  whose  pres- 
ence all  power  depends. 

The  fact  is,  Zion's  attractions  are  unique ; 
like  her  Lord,  they  are  not  of  the  world  ;  they 
belong  to  another  order  of  beauty,  *'  the 
beauty  of  holiness."  When  the  Church  robes 
herself  in  the  charms  of  worldly  attire  and 
adornment,  she  not  only  fails  to  draw  the 
world  to  herself  and  to  Christ,  but  she  actu- 
ally takes  the  infection  of  the  *'  Spirit  of  the 
Age,"  which,  however  disguised,  is  hostile  to 
God.     Instead  of  transforming  the  children 


THE  SECULAR  SPIRIT. 


95 


of  the  world,  she  becomes  conformed  to 
them.  The  secular  attractions  with  which 
she  invests  herself,  so  long  as  their  power 
lasts,  only  turn  the  mind  from  divine  things, 
drawing  in  the  same  direction  as  do  the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  Devil ;  and  keeping 
men  under  the  power  of  the  world  that  now 
is,  rather  than  bringing  them  under  the 
powers  of  the  world  that  is  to  come. 

The  gospel  has  great  power  of  attraction, 
but  it  is  not  of  the  worldly  sort.  The  good 
news  of  salvation  has  true  and  lasting  charms, 
and  so  has  the  life  of  every  true  disciple. 
Let  a  pure  gospel  be  preached,  and  a  pure 
type  of  piety  translate  and  illustrate  its  saving 
truths  in  the  language  of  life ;  and  when  Zion 
shall  thus  arise  and  shine.  Gentiles  will  come 
to  her  light  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of 
her  rising. 

If  the  Church  would  woo  and  win  souls,  it 
must  be  by  offering  them  attractions  and 
satisfactions  which  the  world  does  not  and 
cannot  offer,  —  that  which  is  bread  and  satis- 
fies spiritual  hunger,  instead  of  husks  which 


96  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

fill  but  do  not  feed ;  the  well  of  water  spring- 
ing up  into  everlasting  life,  instead  of  the 
broken  cistern.  The  reason  why  the  gospel 
of  God's  grace  never  wears  out  is  because, 
to  every  penitent  believer,  it  gives  what  it 
promises,  —  solid,  substantial,  satisfying  food 
and  drink.  To  draw  souls,  to  get  hold  and 
keep  hold  upon  them,  the  Church  needs  to 
be  not  more  worldly  but  more  unworldly; 
in  her  separation  from  the  world  unto  God 
there  is  power,  for  it  seems  to  say  there  is 
something  for  the  sheep  within  her  fold,  that 
the  world  cannot  give  nor  take  away. 

The  Master  has  left  us  a  warning  to  keep 
ourselves  unspotted  from  the  world,  hating 
even  the  garment  that  is  spotted  by  the  flesh. 
There  is  a  true  law  of  accommodation :  **  I 
am  made  all  things  to  all  men  that  by  all 
means  I  might  save  some ;  "  but  even  this 
may  be  perverted  into  an  abandonment  of 
all  that  is  peculiar,  essential,  and  vital  to 
Christian  character.  Not  even  the  hope  of 
saving  some  can  justify  the  secularization 
of  the  Church.      Lot  may  have  hoped  to  do 


THE  SECULAR  SPIRIT.  97 

good  to  the  wicked  Sodomites  when  he 
pitched  his  tent  toward  Sodom  and  then 
went  and  dwelt  there;  but  he  saved  nobody, 
and  ruined  his  family,  and  got  out  of  the  fire 
of  judgment,  himself  scarcely  saved.  He 
was  a  type  of  all  such  believers  as  obey  this 
worldly  law  of  accommodation.  Aaron  tried 
it  at  Sinai,  and  the  golden  calf  was  the 
result;  Solomon  tried  it  in  Jerusalem,  and 
temples  to  Chemosh  and  Molech  and  altars 
to  Ashtoreth  and  Milcom  confronted  Jeho- 
vah's temple.  It  was  this  very  principle  that 
brought  in  all  the  idolatries  of  Jeroboam  and 
Ahab,  and  compelled  the  multiplied  captivi- 
ties of  Judah  and  Israel ;  and  it  was  this  that 
in  the  days  of  our  Lord's  sojourn  on  earth 
left  the  Jewish  church  to  be  like  a  skeleton- 
leaf  out  of  which  the  life-sap  has  gone. 
From  the  days  when  God  bade  his  people 
come  out  of  Egypt  and  forbade  them  to 
make  mixed  marriages  and  form  alliances 
with  the  heathen,  history  has  borne  but  one 
harmonious  witness;  namely,  that  conformity 
to  the  world  upon  the  part  of  the  Church 
7 


98  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

brings  decay  to  piety  and  to  all  evangelistic 
activity. 

In  the  New  Testament  especially,  the  un- 
worldly character  of  the  Church  of  Christ  is 
written  in  large  letters  as  upon  public  tab- 
lets, that  all  may  read  at  a  glance.  Our  Lord 
taught  it  in  discourse  and  parable,  and 
breathed  it  in  His  intercessory  pra}'er.  Paul 
and  Peter,  James  and  John  and  Jude,  echo  it, 
and  the  echo  grows  louder  rather  than  fainter 
with  each  new  reverberation.  The  Apoca- 
lypse as  with  mighty  thunderings  warns  an 
already  imperilled  Church  of  the  subtle  snares 
of  Babylon  the  gilded,^  the  apostate  counter- 
part of  Jerusalem   the  golden. 

The  array  of  Scripture  texts  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  historic  facts  on  the  other,  is 
like  the  marshalling  of  two  vast  hosts,  guard- 
ing God's  people  against  the  world's  influ- 
ence and  power;  and  on  their  banners  we 
read,  in  command  and  symbol:  "Be  not  con- 
formed to  this  world."  Believers  are  the 
Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  He  cannot 

1  Rev.  xvii.  4,  margin. 


THE  SECULAR  SPIRIT.  99 

tolerate  idols  in  His  courts.  If  we  will  have 
the  spirit  of  the  world,  we  cannot  have  the 
Spirit  of  God ;  or  if  He  comes  at  all  it  will  be 
not  as  the  shining  Shechinah  but  as  the  con- 
suming fire;  as  Jesus  with  lashing  scourge 
and  flashing  eye,  not  with  hands  outstretched 
in  blessing. 

One  thing  is  absolutely  certain  :  the  modern 
secularization  of  the  Church,  as  we  have  be- 
fore said,  has  thus  far  had  no  effect  in  further- 
ing the  work  of  evangelization.  Never  had 
the  worship  of  God  such  manifold  and  costly 
accessories  and  adornments.  All  the  re- 
sources of  nature  and  culture,  architecture 
and  art,  mechanical  elaboration  and  poetic 
imagination,  have  been  taxed  to  the  utmost 
to  make  the  ordinances  of  religion  attractive. 
Yet  in  every  quarter  we  hear  the  same  com- 
plaint, that  the  common  people  are  desert- 
ing the  churches.  Dr.  John  Hall  quaintly 
remarked,  that  while  across  the  sea  the  pop- 
ulation is  divided  into  "  churchmen  and 
dissenters,"  here  it  is  divided  into  "  church- 
men and  absentersr     But  across  the  sea  we 


lOO  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

shall  likewise  find  the  absenters  far  the  more 
numerous.     The    late    Earl    of   Shaftesbury, 
after  large  opportunity  of  observing  and  col- 
lating facts,  stated,  at  the  anniversary  of  the 
*'  Open-Air  Mission  "  at  Islington,  that  "  not  - 
more   than   two  per   cent    of  workingmen   in 
England  are  wont  to  attend  public  worship." 
We    have    not    the    basis    for  an    accurate 
statement ;   but  the  plain  fact  stares  us  in  the 
face,  that  the  bulk  of  our  population,  espe- 
cially in  the  cities,  is  practically  as  unreached 
by  the  gospel  as   the   masses  of  pagans  are 
in  the  heart  of  Africa.     These  multitudes  of 
home  heathen  do  not  come  to  our  churches, 
and  the  churches  do  not   go  to  them;   there 
is  often  close  contiguity,  but  no  real  contact. 
In  no  city  of  our  land  could  the  church  build- 
ings hold  the  people  were  they  church-goers, 
and  yet  these  buildings  are  not  half  full.     In 
London,   on   a  bright   Sunday  morning,  the 
London  *'  Times  "  found,  from  reports  care- 
fully   compiled    and    compared,    an    average 
audience  of  but  seventy-five.     In  one  of  the 
Protestant  "  cathedrals  "  of  Philadelphia,  only 


THE  SECULAR  SPIRIT.  lOI 

twenty-five  could  be  counted  on  a  recent 
Sunday  evening.  In  Detroit,  a  pew-holder 
in  the  most  elegant  church  edifice  of  that 
"  city  of  the  straits,"  noted  on  the  fly-leaf  of 
his  hymn-book,  "November  27,  fine  evening; 
total  attendance,  28."  In  the  city  of  Broth- 
erly Love  we  have  a  total  of  nearly  seven 
hundred  places  of  worship,  including  those 
of  all  sizes  and  of  every  sect.  Liberally 
estimating  the  average  seating  capacity  at 
four  hundred,  we  have,  in  a  city  of  a  million 
inhabitants,  provision  for  a  little  over  one 
fourth  of  the  population.  The  key-note  of 
evangelization  is  lacking  when  there  is  not 
room  for  all.  It  is  true  that  we  can  say, 
''And  yet  there  is  room;"  but  it  is  only  be- 
cause even  church-members  are  habitually 
neglecting  the  place  of  worship. 

We  add  a  significant  testimony.  Professor 
Christlieb,  of  Bonn,  Germany,  said  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  at  Co- 
penhagen, that,  ''  according  to  the  statistics 
of  the  last  twenty  years,  there  has  been  a 
large  falling  off  in  attendance  upon  religious 


102  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

services  throughout  Europe,  followed  by  an 
increase  of  crime.  Paris  has  more  atheists 
to-day  than  ever  before  existed  in  any  great 
city.  In  no  Christian  country,  however,  are 
things  so  bad  as  in  Germany.  In  many  dis- 
tricts of  Berlin  there  is  only  one  church  to 
every  fifty  thousand  of  the  population.  In 
New  York  there  are  two  hundred  places  of 
public  worship;  in  Berlin  only  fifty;  and  out 
of  the  whole  population  of  Berlin,  namely, 
one  million,  only  twenty  thousand,  or  two 
per  cent,  attend  divine  service.  Hamburg  is 
even  worse,  for  out  of  a  population  of  four 
hundred  thousand,  public  worship  on  Sun- 
days is  attended  only  by  five  thousand.  In 
certain  provinces  of  Germany  there  are  sui- 
cides at  the  rate  of  forty  a  week.  The  ordi- 
nary religious  teaching  of  the  country  is 
quite  dead,  and  Christianity  resolved  into 
mere  education.  Sceptical  works  are  popu- 
lar with  the  working  classes,  and  in  the  mid- 
dle and  upper  classes  hundreds  are  led  away 
by  the  influence  of  scientific  discovery  and 
invention."     Dr.  Christlieb  further  stated  that 


THE  SECULAR   SPIRIT.  103 

there  are  "forty  thousand  out  of  a  population 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  in  the  city 
of  Edinburgh  who  go  to  no  place  of  worship  ; 
two  hundred  thousand  in  Glasgow  out  of  a 
population  of  seven  hundred  thousand,  and 
nearly  a  million  and  a  quarter  in  London  out 
of  a  population  of  four  million." 

The  test  of  the  vitality  of  church-life,  as  of 
our  Lord's  messiahship,  is  this:  "To  the  poor 
the  gospel  is  preached."  Matthew  Arnold 
divides  society  into  "  an  upper  class,  material- 
ized ;  a  lower  class,  brutalized ;  and  a  middle 
class,  vulgarized."  1  Be  it  so ;  a  live  church, 
with  God's  gospel  in  her  hands  and  God's 
Spirit  in  her  heart,  can  penetrate  to  the  lowest 
strata,  and  lift  even  the  undermost.  But  this 
never  has  been  done,  and  never  will  be  done, 
by  wisdom  of  words  or  by  the  wisdom  of 
this  world.  The  church  that  conforms  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age  may  be  '*  swept  and  gar- 
nished," but  will  be  still  "  empty;"  the  Spirit 
of  God  will  not  make  it  His  Temple  nor  ex- 
ercise there  His  drawing  power,  and  that  is 
1  Somebody  mistakenly  quotes  this  "'pulverized''  I 


104  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

the  only  Spirit  and  the  only  Power  that  can 
ever  fill  these  places  of  assembly  with  true 
worshippers  or  seekers  after  God. 

We  must  have  a  more  unworldly  pulpit. 
Preaching  must  be  simpler  in  matter  and 
manner  ;  it  must  impress  men  as  dealing 
directly,  honestly,  earnestly,  with  their  souls ; 
adapting  itself  to  any  class  of  hearers  with 
facility,  to  private  house  or  street  corner  or 
riverside  as  readily  as  to  stately  temples. 
Pulpit  essays  and  orations  that  have  scarce 
the  salt  that  gives  a  gospel  savor,  that  do  not 
grapple  with  the  conscience  or  arouse  the 
will,  help  to  make  men  infidels.  They  are 
poultices  applied  to  the  cancer  which  de- 
mands the  knife ;  and  the  hearer  begins  to 
doubt  whether  sin  is  indeed  a  fatal  disease, 
or  whether  the  preacher  himself  believes  the 
souls  of  sinners  to  be  in  peril.  What  may 
draw  the  rich  and  cultured  may  repel  the 
poor  and  ignorant,  who  cannot  afford  to  pay 
for  costly  pulpit  talent,  who  cannot  under- 
stand stately  orations,  and  who  instinctively 
know    that     superb     church     edifices,    with 


THE  SECULAR  SPIRIT.  105 

expenses  that  only  wealth  can  meet,  are  not 
for  them ;  and  that,  to  be  thoroughly  ivel- 
come,  one  must  wear  the  insignia  of  riches  or 
at  least  of  competency  to  assume  his  share 
of  the  outlay.  That  instinctive  "  pride  of 
poverty  "  which  keeps  the  poor  away  from 
our  splendid  church  buildings  is  not  a  wholly 
ignoble  sentiment. 

We  must  have  a  more  unworldly  atmos- 
phere in  the  churches.  True  winners  of  souls 
have  an  indefinable  air  of  simplicity  and 
sincerity  about  them  that  disarms  indiffer- 
ence and  even  opposition.  The  sinless  One 
drew  near  to  Him  the  publicans  and  sinners 
for  to  hear  Him.  In  order  to  evangelization 
of  the  masses  there  must  be  identification 
with  them.  The  culture  that  seems  cold  and 
critical,  the  refinement  that  repels  by  its  fastid- 
iousness, the  intellectuality  that  is  exclusive, 
and  the  selfishness  that  is  unsympathetic, 
turn  even  ministers  of  Christ  into  rigid,  frigid 
statues,  and  our  cathedral  churches  into  mar- 
ble mausoleums  for  the  burial  of  a  gospel 
that  is  practically  dead,  powerless  to  save. 


I06  EVAN-GELISTIC    WORK. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HELPS   AND    HINDRANCES. 


ECTURES  on  projectiles  never  yet 
made  a  marksman."  Practical  trial 
of  methods  and  measures  is  the 
only  true  test  of  efficiency.  The  workman 
gets  his  best  training  for  his  work,  in  his  work. 
Causes  produce  effects;  means  conduce  to 
ends.  Conversion  is  not  a  mechanical  pro- 
cess, and  yet  there  are  helps  and  there  are 
hindrances.  Even  supernatural  power  does 
not  disregard  natural  law.  Having  laid  down 
certain  general  principles,  having  given  due 
prominence  to  preaching  as  the  main  instru- 
ment, it  may  now  be  well  to  glance  at  some 
of  those  subordinate  helps  which  have  been 
found  to  be  aids  in  bringing  souls  within  reach 
of  the  gospel  and  leading  to  self-surrender  to 
Christ. 


HELPS  AND   HINDRANCES.  10/ 

First  of  all,  we  rank  the  evangelistic  service. 
Church  gatherings  have  a  varied  character. 
Sometimes  they  are  social,  for  cultivation  of 
fellowship  in  love  and  work  ;  sometimes 
sacramental,  giving  prominence  to  ordinances 
and  holy  rites ;  sometimes  devotional,  for  the 
expression  of  prayer,  praise,  and  personal 
experience;  sometimes  didactic,  presenting 
truth  mainly  for  the  instruction  and  edification 
of  habitual  hearers. 

There  is  need  of  a  service  differing  from 
all  these,  in  having  for  its  specific,  professed 
object  to  press  the  claims  and  invitations  of 
the  gospel  upon  the  unsaved,  and  in  which 
everything  from  first  to  last  shall  be  meant 
and  fitted  to  lead  souls  to  Christ  and  to  an 
immediate  decision. 

Such  services  are  now  only  occasional  and 
exceptional ;  even  the  Sunday-school  is  rather 
didactic  than  evangelistic.  It  is  true  that  in 
any  sermon  something  may  be  said  to  move 
the  unconverted,  but  in  a  gathering  whose 
sole  or  special  object  is  the  conversion  of  men 
there  resides   peculiar  power.     Mr.  Mood^^'s 


I08  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

motto  is :  ''  Consecrate  and  concentrate,"  and 
he  illustrates  his  maxim.  To  turn  in  one 
direction  for  a  time  all  prayers  and  appeals 
and  efforts  gives  sharper  point  to  preaching, 
greater  definiteness  to  praying,  deeper  spirit- 
uality to  singing,  and  more  energy  to  work- 
ing; it  quickens  faith  in  the  gospel,  awakens 
expectation  of  results,  and  attracts  the  half- 
convinced  and  the  almost-persuaded,  and  im- 
pels them  toward  those  final  decisions  that 
determine  destiny  for  eternity. 

We  have  ourselves  found  it  helpful  to  give 
to  the  second  service  of  the  Lord's  day  this 
evangelistic  type  ;  to  preach  in  a  very  simple, 
conversational  way ;  to  popularize  the  sing- 
ing by  having  a  large  chorus  choir  of  earnest, 
praying  people  to  lead ;  to  break  up  the 
service  by  greater  variety  of  exercises ;  to 
combine  with  preaching,  prayer  and  praise 
and  promise  meetings ;  to  call  trusty  laymen 
to  the  front  who  have  skill  in  presenting  truth 
and  winning  souls ;  now  and  then  to  have 
'*  parents'  and  children's  meetings "  where 
the  formality  and  stateliness  of  the  ordinary 


HELPS  AND  HINDRANCES.  IO9 

service  of  worship  give  way  to  a  familiar  fam- 
ily gathering,  with  stirring  music,  short 
prayers,  and  brief  addresses. 

Better  still,  if  the  second  service  be  also 
free  to  all;  if  by  a  vote  of  the  congregation 
all  exclusive  rights  in  pews  be  surrendered, 
that  the  poorest  may  feel  that  he  has  a  right 
as  well  as  a  welcome ;  and  if  young  men  be 
sent  out  with  printed  cards  of  invitation,  to 
distribute  in  hotels,  saloons,  on  street  corners, 
and  in  out-of-the-way  places.  —  anything  to 
get  hold  upon  souls.  Dr.  Duff's  reply  to 
those  who  criticised  his  methods  in  India 
was,  that  he  would  stand  on  the  street  and 
beat  two  old  wooden  shoes  together,  if  so  he 
might  win  the  ears  of  the  people. 

In  connection  with  evangelistic  services, 
a  change  in  the  place  of  meeting  sometimes 
helps  marvellously  in  reaching  "  the  masses." 
Those  who  do  not  and  will  not  come  to 
church  buildings  will  throng  an  opera-house, 
theatre,  public  hall,  or  rink;  why  not  go 
there  and  preach  to  them?  Conservatism 
would  sometimes  stick  to  a  church  building, 


no  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

even  if  there  were  no  one  attending  but  the 
minister  and  sexton,  rather  than  hold  a  ser- 
vice of  worship  in  an  "  unconsecrated"  place, 
though  thousands  were  ready  to  come  there 
and  hear  the  gospel. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  no  **  consecrated 
places  "  are  known  to  the  New  Testament ; 
no  Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  but  the  body 
of  the  believer  or  the  collective  body  of  all 
believers.  The  Tabernacle  and  Temple  with 
their  hallowed  courts  are  no  more ;  of  old, 
where  God  had  recorded  His  name  He  came 
to  His  people  to  bless  them ;  now,  where  two 
or  three  are  met  in  His  name,  wherever  spir- 
itual worship  is  offered,  He  records  His  name 
and  comes  to  bless  them.^  We  would  neither 
abandon  church  buildings  altogether,  nor  un- 
duly magnify  them  as  exclusive  places  of 
worship ;  but  we  would  subordinate  all  else 
to  the  reaching  and  saving  of  human  souls. 

Evangelization  depends,  first  of  all,  on  get- 
ting the  ears  of  men.  Rev.  Dr.  William  E. 
Knox,   with   his   inimitable   humor,   told    the 

1  Cf.  Exodus  XX.  24;    Matt,  xviii.  19,  20:  John  iv.  23,  24. 


HELPS  AND  HINDRANCES.  I  i  i 

students  at  Auburn  Seminary  that,  after  thirty 
years  of  study,  he  had  found  the  secret  of 
success  in  the  ministry:  "Get  a  big  audi- 
ence !  Spurgeon  and  such  as  he  could  not 
but  be  great  preachers,  because  they  had 
such  multitudes  to  address."  But  behind  this 
quaint  humor  hides  a  suggestion.  We  must 
sacrifice  somewhat  to  get  at  men's  ears.  If 
we  are  in  dead  earnest  we  shall  not  stand  on 
our  dignity.  Before  a  consuming  passion  for 
souls,  a  spirit  of  hypercriticism  and  excessive 
conservatism  melts  away. 

They  used  to  say  of  Lord  Eldon,  that  he 
''prevented  more  good  than  any  other  man 
ever  didT  Many  a  man  becomes  a  mere 
obstruction,  lying  squarely  in  the  way  of  all 
advance,  by  such  excessive  conservatism 
and  dread  of  innovation.  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
whose  noble  heart  yearned  over  the  neglected 
multitudes  in  London,  and  who  declined  the 
highest  offices  and  honors  because  they  in- 
terfered with  his  divine  call  to  labor  among- 
the  poor,^  found,  as  late  as  1855,  an  enact- 
1  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  ii.  511. 


112  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

ment  still  in  force,  prohibiting  the  teaching 
of  the  gospel  and  the  worship  of  God  in 
private  houses  where  twenty  persons  beside 
the  family  were  assembled.  It  shows  how  late 
in  this  nineteenth  century  obstructive  relig- 
ious legislation  could  still  survive,  that,  while 
no  legal  prohibition  forbade  any  assembly  in 
any  numbers  for  gain  or  mirth,  for  secular 
or  political  ends,  a  body  of  Christians  met  to 
pray  or  preach  were  liable  to  fine  and  jail ! 
Though  in  most  cases  it  was  a  dead  letter,  it 
was  a  "  rod  in  pickle,"  an  ecclesiastical  engine 
ready  for  use  when  desired ;  or,  as  Brougham 
said,  "dormant,  not  dead,"  a  reptile  capable  of 
being  warmed  into  active  life  at  any  moment 
by  malicious  passions,  avarice,  or  mistaken 
religious  zeal.  Shaftesbury  sought,  by  a  bill, 
to  repeal  so  much  of  the  Act  as  hindered 
properly  and  orderly  conducted  religious 
meetings.  But  he  met  a  strenuous  opposi- 
tion even  from  Christian  lords  and  bishops, 
which  actually  put  the  bill  in  jeopardy.  He 
saw  the  high  dignitaries  of  the  Church  of 
England  deliberately  placing  impediments  in 


HELPS  AND  HINDRANCES.  1 13 

the  way  of  religious  worship  and  the  evangel- 
ization of  the  masses  of  the  people.  Under 
pretence  of  preserving  ojder  in  the  Church, 
they  were  seeking  ^  to  limit  the  Christian 
work  of  laymen,  arrest  the  progress  of  dis- 
senters, and  prevent  any  innovations  upon 
existing  customs. 

The  attitude  of  antagonism  taken  against 
his  measure  was  to  Lord  Shaftesbury  intol- 
erable. The  idea  of  ''permission  to  pray"! 
It  was  like  permission  to  breathe.  "  Every 
man  should  have  perfect  right  to  worship 
God  when  and  how  he  pleased,  in  his  own 
house  or  his  neighbor's,  in  any  number,  at 
any  time,  unless  the  exercise  of  such  right 
plainly  endangered  public  morality  or  public 
safety."  But  it  was  especially  intolerable  to 
him  in  view  of  the  five  millions  in  Eng-Iand 
who  were  wholly  without  instruction  of  any 
kind ;  and  at  last,  after  heroic  efforts,  he 
carried  all  that  was  vital  in  his  bill,  and  vin- 
dicated the  right  as  well  as  privilege  of  such 
assemblies. 

1  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  ii.  516-520. 
8 


114  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

But  the  battle  was  not  yet  over ;  there  was 
yet  to  be  conflict  with  this  obstructive  con- 
servatism. In  the  spring  of  1857  ^  series  of 
special  religious  services  was  commenced  in 
Exeter  Hall  on  Sunday  evenings.  Abundant 
success  attended  them.  Thousands  were 
present  every  Sunday  evening,  and  from  all 
quarters  testimony  was  borne  that  a  large 
class  of  those  who  were  not  habitual  attend- 
ants at  either  church  or  chapel  was  reached. 
The  movement  appealed  especially  to  work- 
ingmen.  It  disarmed  their  prejudices  by 
providing  that  there  should  be  no  distinction 
of  persons,  no  reserved  seats  or  collections ; 
and  that  the  humblest  should  be  dealt  with 
on  precisely  the  same  footing  as  the  highest 
man  in  the  land.^ 

Twelve  services  were  held,  and  even  the 
heat  of  the  weather  did  not  hinder  the  grow- 
ing attendance.  Toward  the  last,  five  thou- 
sand people  thronged  the  hall,  and  half  as 
many  more  left,  unable  to  get  in.  When  the 
services    were    suspended    for    the    summer, 

1  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  iii.  48. 


HELPS  AND  HINDRANCES.  1 15 

arrangements  were  made  to  reopen  them  in 
the  autumn,  but  they  were  actually  prevented 
by  an  inhibition  issued  by  the  incumbent  of 
the  parish  to  the  minister  who  was  to  have 
officiated  at  the  reopening.  Nor  would  they 
have  been  resumed  at  all,  had  not  the  Non- 
conformists, who  were  not  fettered  by  such 
ecclesiastical  restrictions,  taken  up  the  matter. 
Again  this  noble  philanthropist  sought  to 
secure  legislation  that  would  be  favorable  to 
evangelistic  effort,  and  again  he  encountered 
strenuous  opposition,  though  the  speeches  of 
his  opponents  were  principally  conspicuous  for 
their  extraordinary  feebleness.^  The  measure 
called  forth  an  immense  amount  of  *'  sacer- 
dotalism even  among  the  Evangelical  clergy." 
But  public  sympathy  was  with  the  measure, 
and  a  partial  victory  was  ultimately  secured. 
The  special  Sunday  evening  services  at  Exe- 
ter  Hall  grew  in  interest,  and  similar  efforts 
were  made  in  other  directions ;  and  to  reach 
the  middle  and  upper  classes,  similar  services 
were    held   respectively  in   the    metropolitan 

1  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  iii.  52,  53. 


Il6  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

theatres,  and  in  Westminster  and  St.  Paul's. 
By  the  middle  of  February  seven  theatres 
were  opened,  with  an  average  attendance  of 
twenty  thousand  seven  hundred  each  night ; 
and  of  those  attending,  not  more  than  one 
tenth  had  probably  ever  frequented  any  place 
of  public  worship  before.^ 

The  order  was  excellent,  and  the  solemn 
silence  impressive.  **  Down  the  pale  cheeks 
that  once  had  blushed,  and  from  the  eyes 
still  retaining  lustre,  tears  flow,  and  occasion- 
ally over  all  the  audience  a  stillness  reigns, 
that  proves  reality  to  be  more  efi"ective  than 
fiction,  and  the  story  of  a  cross  erected  on  a 
Judaean  hill  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  to 
have   lost  none   of  its  power."  ^ 

No  one  could  honestly  doubt  the  vast  good 
accomplished  by  these  professedly  evangel- 
istic services  held  in  the  great  Exeter  Hall 
and  the  theatres  of  London.  They  drew 
thousands  whose  poverty  and  rags  would 
have  kept  them  from  going  to  any  ordinary 
place  of  worship  and  would  have  shut  them 

1  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  iii.  102.  2  jj-,,  jij,  104. 


HELPS  AND  HINDRANCES. 


117 


out  of  many,  even  had  they  gone.  These 
services  were  related  to  other  services  of 
worship  as  ragged  schools  were  to  other 
schools;  their  purpose  was  not  to  displace 
ordinary  church  assemblies,  but  by  drawing 
the  people  first  into  contact  with  the  gospel 
in  the  theatre  or  hall,  to  lead  them  into 
permanent  church-going  habits.  And  yet, 
not  only  did  these  services  not  meet  with 
universal  approval,  but  Lord  Dungannon  In 
the  House  of  Lords  led  in  open  opposition 
to  them. 

In  this  country,  though  less  hampered  by 
church  establishments,  efforts  to  "  evangelize 
the  masses,"  however  successful,  do  not 
always  meet  either  approbation  or  co-opera- 
tion. One  instance  may  be  given  of  hun- 
dreds. A  prominent  pastor  in  a  large  city, 
unable  in  his  stately  marble  church  building 
to  get  hold  of  non  church-goers,  prevailed  on 
his  people  to  open  the  opera-house  for  Sun- 
day evenings,  and  there,  in  place  of  three 
hundred,  he  spoke  to  three  thousand.  Yet, 
after   some   weeks    of  growing   interest   and 


Il8  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

experience  of  a  manifest  blessing  in  souls 
saved,  his  people  deliberately  discontinued 
these  services,  and  went  back  to  their  church 
edifice,  with  its  average  attendance  of  a  few 
hundred;  and  although  it  was  plain  that  they 
had  lost  their  grip  upon  the  people,  they 
seemed  content  to  have  it  so.  We  feel  con- 
strained to  ask,  Where  is  our  zeal  for  souls? 
Is  a  consecrated  building  practically  of  more 
consequence  than  the  saving  of  the  lost? 

The  redemption  of  a  soul  is  precious ;  and 
soon  it  ceaseth  forever.  We  do  not  wonder 
that  evangelization  moves  slowly,  when  even 
in  professing  disciples  there  is  so  little  down- 
right earnestness  in  the  endeavor  to  save  men. 
Fire  is  one  of  the  greatest  forces  of  nature. 
It  not  only  burns  and  warms,  but  it  marches 
on  with  the  tread  of  a  conqueror ;  nothing 
stands  before  it.  It  consumes  forests,  it 
sweeps  away  vast  structures,  it  melts  even 
metallic  barriers,  in  its  onward  progress. 
Give  us  one  man  on  fire  with  God's  Spirit, 
and  nothing  stands  long  between  him  and  the 
souls  that  Satan  holds  in  his  Bastile  ! 


THE  SERVICE   OF  SONG.  1 19 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   SERVICE   OF    SONG. 


EED  needs  a  soil  prepared  for  the 
sowing.  Sacred  song  is  both  a 
"  former  "  rain  to  help  the  seed  to 
germinate,  and  a  ''latter"  rain  to  secure  a 
fruitful  harvest.  In  two  of  Paul's  epistles 
he  attributes  to  it  value,  as  a  vehicle  for  the 
communion  of  saints,  and  even  for  mutual 
exhortation,  instruction,  admonition.^ 

Evangelistic  singing  is  a  great  help  to 
evangelistic  services.  Even  those  w^ho  are 
too  conservative  to  give  up  the  psalms  and 
hymns,  fragrant  with  hallowed  memories 
and  the  associations  of  centuries,  admit  the 
strange  power  wielded  over  the  popular  heart 
by  those  modern  spiritual  songs,  which  have 
already  won  for  themselves  a  deserved  place 

1  Eph.  V.  19;  Col.  iii.  16. 


I20  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

in  our  song-service,  because,  however  defec- 
tive lyrically  or  musically,  and  although  they 
sometimes  offend  a  fastidious  poetic  taste, 
they  have  been  used  by  the  Spirit  of  God  as 
channels  of  His  power. 

The  reasons  may  in  part  at  least  be  as- 
signed. First  of  all,  they  are  for  the  most 
part  Evangelical.  Whatever  they  lack,  they 
are  saturated  with  the  gospel;  sermons,  set 
to  music.  There  is  no  frame  of  mind  or  state 
of  heart,  from  the  dawn  of  religious  inquiry 
to  the  full  day  of  conscious  salvation,  which 
may  not  find  in  these  spiritual  songs  a  fitting 
expression  and  response.  One  who  is  on 
the  point  of  decision  may  sing,  — 

"  I  am  coming  to  the  cross." 

For  one  who  needs  to  have  emphasized  a 
present  salvation,  there  is  — 

'•  Hallelujah,  't  is  done  !     I  believe  on  the  Son." 

If  you  would  stir  the  soul  by  exhibiting  the 
sufferings  of  Jesus,  there  is  that  touching 
hymn  — 


THE  SERVICE   OF  SONG.  12 1 

"  I  gave  my  life  for  thee."  i 

If  an  inquiring  soul  is  tempted  to  delay,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  making  preparation,  he  is 
met  with 

"Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea; " 

Or  if  falsely  led  to  linger  under  legal  shadows, 

*'  Free  from  the  Law,  oh  happy  condition  !  " 

Who  can  doubt  the  real  power  over  the 
popular  heart  of  such  inspiring  songs  as 
**  Wonderful  Words  of  Life ;  "  or  the  deep 
sympathetic  chord  touched  by  "  Rescue  the 
Perishing;  "  or  the  quickening  influence  on 
faith  of  "Simply  trusting  every  day;"  or 
the    rousing    and    almost    martial    power    of 

1  This  hymn  was  suggested  by  the  choice  painting^ 
*'  Ecce  Homo,"  in  the  Dusseldorf  Gallery,  over  which  is  an 
inscription  in  Latin:  — 

"  All  this  I  did  for  thee; 
What  doest  thou  for  Me  ?  " 

Zinzendorf,  the  Moravian  bishop,  overcome  at  the  sight  of 
this  picture,  and  feeling  deeply  that  he  could  make  no 
fitting  response  to  this  solemn  question,  prayed  his  Lord  to 
pull  him  forcibly  into  the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings, 
should  he  incline  to  shrink  and  remain  without. 


122  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

"  Hold  the  Fort!  "  We  have  been  in  hun- 
dreds of  evangeHstic  services  where  some 
such  simple  gospel  song,  sung  tenderly  and 
sympathetically,  has  moved  and  melted  the 
hearts  of  great  audiences,  so  that  the  effects 
were  almost  visible.  Of  course  this  modern 
''hymnology"  needs  careful  sifting,  for  it 
has  much  chaff  mingled  with  it,  but  much 
of  it  proves,  when  planted  in  human  hearts, 
the  very  seed  of  the  kingdom. 

Another  reason  for  the  popularity  and 
power  of  these  evangelistic  songs  is  the  clear 
eminciatio7i  with  which  they  are  rendered. 
If  the  words  cannot  be  understood,  the  sing- 
ing is  regarded  as  a  failure.  As  in  reading 
the  Bible  "  good  emphasis  is  good  exegesis," 
so  good  enunciation  makes  a  sacred  song  an 
appeal  and  an  argument. 

On  the  other  hand,  "artistic"  singing  aims 
to  disguise  and  even  "  elide,"  or  glide  over, 
consonants  because  they  interfere  with  pure 
vocalization ;  and  the  favorite  language  in 
song  is  the  Italian,  because  it  abounds  in 
vowel  sounds.     Artistic  vocalists  will  sing  an 


THE  SERVICE   OF  SONG.  I  23 

anthem  in  English,  giving  such  prominence 
to  vowels  and  touching  consonants  so  lightly, 
that  the  English  can  scarcely  be  distinguished 
from  Italian,^ 

In  that  mysterious  and  subtle  something, 
which  in  these  days  interferes  with  the  perma- 
nent power  of  the  gospel  as  preached,  a  large 
factor  is  wicojisecratcd  organ-playing  and  cJioij^- 
singing.  A  very  quaint  Episcopal  bishop 
used  to  say  that  the  Litany  needed  a  new 
petition,  asking  deliverance  "  from  the  Devil's 
poor  and  poor  devils,  whining  saints  and  quar- 
tette choirs." 

The  pulpit  and  choir  are  often  not  in 
practical  accord.     Dr.  Goodwin  says,  — 

"  Cases  are  not  few,  nor  hard  to  find,  where  in 
the  handling  of  choir-leaders  and  those  who  abet 
them,  the  Lord's  house  is  turned  into  a  concert  hall, 
the  service  of  song  made  largely  a  device  for  filling 
and  renting  pews,   and  the  minister  compelled  to 

1  As  when  an  operatic  singer  in  a  church  choir  thus 
rendered  the  Fortieth  Psahn ;  by  the  comparative  size  of 
vowels  and  consonants  we  may  indicate  their  comparative 
prominence  in  the  anthem  :  — 

"I—  wA— A-t'd  f  A— W   th'   lA— W— d." 


124  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

sandwich  his  part  in  between  performances  that 
suggest  anything  but  the  worship  of  God  and  the 
salvation  of  men.-^  Sometimes  indeed  he  has  to 
come  to  his  duties  in  the  puipit,  after  the  world 
and  the  flesh  and  the  Devil  have,  through  the  fin- 
gers and  lips  of  an  unconverted  organist  and  choir- 
leader,  set  things  moving  to  their  liking ;  and  then 
turn  the  service  over  to  them  after  the  sermon,  to 
be  finished  up  as  they  may  elect.  Doubtless  the 
Devil  likes  that  way  of  conducting  Sabbath  services. 
If  he  can  only  get  people's  heads  full  of  waltzes 
and  operas  and  sonatas,  and  what-not  else,  before 
the  preaching  comes,  and  then  have  a  chance  to 
follow  it  up  with  a  march  or  an  aria  of  his  own 
selection,  the  preacher's  thirty  minutes  of  gospel 
will  not  greatly  damage  his  interests.  Litde  won- 
der that  preaching  in  such  circumstances  saves  few 
souls." 

There  is  not  only  manifest  incongruity  and 
impropriety,  but  as  we  believe  somewhat  that 

1  Here  is  a  recent  programme  :    "  Organ  prelude  ;    An- 
them:  Solo  by  ;  Carol;  Response  to  the  Law;  Solo 

and  Anthem  ;  Gloria  Patri ;  Offertory  ;  Anthem,  with  Solos 
and  Duet ;  Recessional,  with  orchestra."  And  this  in  a 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church ! 


THE  SERVICE   OF  SONG.  1 25 

borders  on  profanity,  in  putting  forward  un- 
godly persons  to  lead   the  service  of  sacred 
song.     In  this  part  of  divine  worship,  hypoc- 
risy is    not   only  sadly   apparent    but    syste- 
matically tolerated.     To  hire  those  who   are 
openly  irreligious,  though  they  may  be  war- 
blers from  the  opera  stage,  to  sing  ''Nearer, 
my  God,  to  Thee,"  or  to  adapt  "Jesus,  lover 
of  my  soul,"  to  "  When  the  swallows  home- 
ward fly,"  is  putting  upon  a  heartless  formal- 
ity both  praise   and  price.     In  more  than  one 
fashionable   church   choir,    a    singing-master, 
whose  mouth  is  foul  with  tobacco  and  whose 
breath   is  foul  with   rum,  sings   Zion's    sweet 
songs ;   and  we  knew  of  one  case  in  which  a 
woman  of  bad  repute  and  her  paramour  were 
for  years  the  leading  singers  in  a    Presbyte- 
rian church ;   and  of  another  case  in  which  a 
choir  left  the  choir-gallery  for  a  beer   saloon 
during  the  sermon  ! 

Alas  for  the  unappreciated  powers  and 
possibilities  of  sacred  song  !  Music  probably 
approximates,  most  nearly  of  anything  on 
earth,  the  language   of  heaven.     Its  uses   in 


126  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

worship,  in  direct  praise,  in  indirect  prayer, 
in  the  expression  of  gospel  truth,  in  soften- 
ing the  sensibihties,  drawing  souls  together, 
banishing  unholy  thoughts  and  kindling 
heavenward  aspirations,  no  pen  has  ever 
described. 

On  the  stage  of  a  Liverpool  theatre,  a 
comic,  burlesque  singer  came  out  before  the 
footlights  to  sing  in  character.  Just  then, 
echoing  through  the  chambers  of  his  mem- 
ory, there  came  the  strains  of  a  Sunday- 
school  hymn,  and  with  such  power  that  he 
forgot  his  comic  song  and  retired  in  con- 
fusion. Dismissed  by  the  enraged  manager, 
he  gave  himself  up  to  a  prolonged  drunken 
debauch.  Meanwhile  the  Moody  and  Sankey 
meetings  had  begun  in  the  city,  and  as  the 
drunken  actor  heard  his  low  companions 
making  the  evangelists  the  subjects  of  ridi- 
cule and  mimicry,  the  thought  flashed  on 
his  mind  that  he  might  repair  his  ruined 
reputation  by  composing  a  burlesque  song 
about  them. 

He    sobered    himself    enough    to    begin. 


THE  SERVICE    OF  SONG. 


27 


But  in  order  to  make  sharper  points  and 
more  telling  hits,  he  must  go  and  hear  and 
study  the  men  whose  peculiarities  he  meant 
to  lampoon.  He  went,  of  course  in  no  frame 
of  mind  to  be  reached  by  the  gospel.  But, 
in  the  singing,  he  heard  the  gospel ;  it  had  a 
strange  charm  over  him,  like  the  playing  of 
David's  harp  upon  Saul ;  it  drove  out  the 
demon  that  possessed  him,  and  the  burlesque 
actor  became  a  penitent  inquirer  and  then  a 
rejoicing  believer.  Abandoning  the  stage, 
the  comedian  went  into  training  for  the  work 
of  a  missionary  ! 

In  the  mountains  of  the  Tyrol,  when  twi- 
light is  gathering  and  weaving  its  curtain  of 
shadows,  the  mothers,  wives,  and  daughters 
go  into  the  valleys  and  sing.  Up  through 
mists  and  clouds  float  the  melodies  from 
beloved  voices,  till  they  fall  like  salutations 
of  love  upon  the  ears  of  fathers,  husbands, 
and  sons,  as  they  wend  their  way  homeward. 
On  the  Mediterranean  waters,  when  the  fish- 
ermen in  their  boats,  enveloped  in  evening  fog, 
can  no  longer  discern  even  the  outline  of  the 


128  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

shore,  it  is  likewise  the  song  of  loved  ones  on 
the  beach  by  which  they  guide  their  boats 
homeward. 

Who  shall  say  how  far  sacred  song  may 
be  used  by  consecrated  lips,  both  to  guide 
penitent  souls  to  the  blessed  Christ,  and  to 
constitute  a  means  of  communion  between 
saints?  And  if  between  heaven  and  earth 
there  be  possible  any  present  communion, 
surely  the  songs  which  true  disciples  sing, 
making  melody  in  their  hearts  to  the  Lord, 
must  float  upward,  penetrating  the  veil  that 
hangs  between,  and  salute  the  ear  of  the 
redeemed  upon  the  ''Delectable  Mountains"  ! 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  129 


CHAPTER   X. 

AIDS   AND   ACCESSORIES. 

HE  crisis  with  the  fisherman  is  the 
landing  of  the  fish,  whether  by  net 
or  Hne.  So  with  the  fisher  of  men. 
He  may  have  had  success  in  finding  and 
skill  in  enclosing  souls  in  the  gospel  net, 
but  his  work  is  vain  if  he  does  not  secure 
them. 

There  is  no  more  helpful  handmaid  to 
evangelistic  work  than  the  '*  after-meeting." 
Its  object  is  to  make  permanent  whatever 
good  has  been  done,  to  fix  impressions  made 
by  the  truth,  to  clinch  nails  driven  by  the 
master  of  the  assembly.  It  is  an  inquiry 
meeting,  but  it  is  more.  In  all  preaching 
services  there  is  much  "wasted  ammunition." 
We  often  fail  to  bring  men  to  a  decision,  and 
so  our  work  is  comparatively  fruitless. 
9 


I30  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

The  blacksmith  drives  the  blast  through 
his  furnace  fire,  till  the  iron  is  at  white  heat; 
then  he  lays  the  iron  on  the  anvil,  and  at 
once  beneath  the  blows  of  his  heavy  hammer 
gives  it  shape.  We  with  prayer  and  pains 
prepare  to  preach,  add  to  convincing  argu- 
ment persuasive  appeal,  and  when  souls  are 
brought  to  white  heat,  in  most  cases  we  allow 
the  impression  to  cool,  and  not  only  lose  our 
opportunity  but  leave  hearts  to  greater  hard- 
ness than  before.  We  ought  to  insist  on 
instant,  visible,  decisive  action,  and  show 
ourselves  masters  of  the  situation,  with  love's 
urgent  entreaty  impelling  and  compelling 
them  to  decide. 

On  the  other  hand,  how  often  does  a 
solemn  sermon  close  amid  that  hush  of 
silence  which  is  the  sign  and  signal  of  a 
crisis  in  soul-history,  when  a  few  well-chosen 
words  with  individuals  now  under  the  Spirit's 
influence  would  turn  the  scale  of  destiny. 
The  minister  sits  down,  and  a  solo  singer  or 
a  quartette  choir  warbles  an  air  whose  only 
effect  is  to  drive  away  all  real  concern  about 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  131 

the  soul ;  then  follows  an  "■  organ  postlude," 
that  devil's  device  to  *'  play  out "  the  people, 
and  the  impression  too;  and  what  these 
closing  exercises  of  '*  worship "  do  not  ac- 
complish, Satan's  fowls  of  the  air,  flying 
about  the  church-vestibule,  complete ;  catch- 
ing away  the  seed  that  was  sown  in  the 
heart. 

How  many  of  the  three  thousand,  pricked 
in  their  heart  at  Pentecost,  would  have  been 
converted  had  Peter's  sermon  been  followed 
by  a  modern  operatic  chorus  with  orchestral 
accompaniment  on  the  organ,  and  promis- 
cuous worldly  conversation  on  the  way  home  ? 
Peter  held  an  "  after-meeting,"  where  the  in- 
quirers' question,  ''What  shall  we  do?"  was 
promptly  and  plainly  answered;  where  the 
argument  of  the  sermon  was  enforced  by 
personal  testimony  and  exhortation,  and 
awakened  sinners  were  urged,  by  firm  but 
gentle  pressure,  from  conviction  to  decision. 
Yes,  CHOICE !  that  was  the  master-stroke  of 
Pentecost.  And  hundreds  of  hearers,  now 
left  to  drift  upon  the  current  of  worldliness 


132  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

into  more  hopeless  alienation  from  God, 
would,  if  promptly,  patiently,  lovingly  fol- 
lowed up  while  the  impression  of  truth  is 
fresh  and  forcible,  yield  to  Christ  as  Saviour 
and  Lord. 

The  after-meeting  is  simply  a  device  sug- 
gested by  common-sense  and  experience  to 
prevent  truth  from  losing  its  grip  upon  souls. 
The  net  already  cast  it  drags  to  shore ;  the 
driven  nail  it  fastens ;  the  hot  iron  it  ham- 
mers into  shape.  That  is  the  philosophy  of 
it  in  a  nut-shell,  and  this  sensible  and  ra- 
tional means  the  Spirit  abundantly  uses  and 
approves. 

To  the  power  of  the  after-meeting  some 
things  are  essential.  First,  it  should  immedi- 
ately follow  the  other.  A  break  is  a  Ipss  of 
continuity;  delay  is  disaster.  As  nearly  as 
may  be  the  preaching  service  should  merge 
or  melt  into  the  other,  unconsciously  and 
imperceptibly;  if  the  place  of  the  meeting 
be  changed  at  all,  it  should  be  to  the  room 
nearest  and  most  accessible  ;  and  if  that 
room  be  on  the  way  out,  it  will  catch  twice 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  133 

as  many  inquirers  as  if  it  were  at  the  other 
end  of  the  building.  When  churches  build 
to  save  souls,  inquiry-rooms  will  be  put 
where  no  one  can  go  out  without  passing 
their  open  doors  and  those  who  at  those 
doors  invite  entrance. 

After-meetings  ought  to  be  far  more  com- 
mon than  they  are.  To  let  awakened  souls 
go  without  such  after-contact  is  in  nine  tenths 
of  cases  to  lose  hold  of  them.  When  the 
truth  grapples  with  the  conscience  and  the 
Spirit  strives  with  man,  Satan  is  on  the  alert 
to  take  advantage  of  the  slightest  interval  of 
interruption,  diversion,  or  delay,  to  dissipate 
impressions.  We  must  keep  up  the  pressure 
upon  the  conscience  till  the  will  yields ;  a 
slight  diversion  may  prevent  conversion.  To 
let  go  is  to  lose  our  advantage  for  Christ. 

Again,  the  after-meeting  must  be  plamied 
for;  the  best  Christian  workers  ready,  with 
their  Bibles,  for  close  hand-to-hand  contact 
with  inquirers,  and  to  meet  by  an  appeal 
to  the  Word  every  objection  or  obstacle  to 
immediate    and  intelligent   choice  of  Christ. 


134  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

There  must  be  no  undue  formality,  no  wait- 
ing for  some  one  else  to  move ;  for  while  the 
worker  hesitates  and  lingers,  the  golden  mo- 
ment has  fled.  Variety  is  very  helpful.  It 
is  well  if  no  two  such  meetings  are  conducted 
alike ;  it  avoids  running  in  ruts.  Where  the 
inquirers  are  many,  there  may  be  a  plain 
talk  to  them  in  a  body,  explaining  very  sim- 
ply the  way  of  salvation,  the  nature  of  faith, 
and  its  supreme  act  of  choice  in  the  personal 
acceptance  of  Jesus  as  Saviour  and  Lord ;  or 
some  clear-headed  disciple  may  be  asked  to 
tell  in  a  few  words  just  "  how  to  be  saved," 
or  answer  in  a  brief,  telling  way  a  few  prac- 
tical questions.  But  the  great  end  to  be 
kept  in  view  is  to  get  before  every  soul  the 
duty  and  privilege  of  unconditional  surrender 
to  God  in  Christ;  and  to  secure  this  result, 
personal  contact  with  each,  one  by  one,  has 
always  been  found  the  surest  road  to  success. 
For  such  individual  dealing  with  inquirers 
we  need  a  body  of  trained  workers,  who  like 
a  physician  can  diagnose  the  disease  from 
the    symptoms    and    prescribe    the    remedy. 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  1 35 

To  the  skilled  worker,  the  Word  of  God  is 
alike  pharmacopoeia  and  dispensary,  with  a 
ready  balm  for  every  want  and  woe  of  man. 
He  gets  past  all  artificial  pretexts  and  super- 
ficial objections,  to  his  patient's  heart ;  then 
turning  to  the  Scripture,  selects  the  remedy 
in  some  fitting  text,  —  a  simple  "Thus  saith 
the  Lord,"  —  which  goes  further  than  all  hu- 
man arguments,  anecdotes,  or  even  personal 
experiences.^ 

Next  only  to  the  movings  of  the  Spirit, 
this  direct  personal  dealing  is  the  surest 
means  of  bringing  souls  to  Christ.  Preach- 
ing is  only  preparatory :  it  spreads  truth  over 
a  greater  breadth  of  surface,  but  this  carries 
it  to  a  greater  depth.  We  may  preach  to 
men  in  masses,  but  they  are  converted  one 
by  one.  With  rare  exceptions,  unless  the 
word  preached  is  followed  by  the  word 
spoken  privately  and  personally,  it  does  not 
convert.  Yet  that  converting  word  is  often 
so  simple  that  we  can  account  for  its  power 
only  by  God's  sovereign  choice  of  weak  things 

1  See  Appendix  A. 


136  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

We  have  known  an  ignorant  old  colored 
woman  to  lead  to  Christ  by  her  tearful,  ear- 
nest words,  —  "I  hope  you  love  Jesus,"  — 
those  whom  the  most  convincing  argument 
could  not  move. 

The  fisher  of  men  aims  first  of  all  to  get 
souls  into  his  net.  Whatever  will  draw  men  to 
him  and  to  the  gospel  he  preaches,  provided 
only  it  be  a  lawful  bait,  he  does  not  despise. 

Our  Lord  used  the  feeding  of  the  body  as  a 
help  to  the  feeding  of  the  soul.  Dr.  Guthrie 
yearned  to  see  a  real  practical  love-feast,  — 
at  least  one  decent,  comfortable  meal  for  the 
poor  of  God's  household  every  Sabbath  day.^ 
But  why  not  give  such  Christian  beneficence 
and  benefaction  wider  scope  !  Some  years 
since,  a  prominent  Episcopal  church  in  New 
York  City  set  in  play  a  many-sided  benevo- 
lence, and  became  a  sacred  Briareus,  stretch- 
ing out  a  hundred  hands  to  help.  Not 
content  with  pitching  a  gospel-tent  right 
amid  the  people,  the  body  was  fed  that 
afterward  spiritual  hunger  might  be  supplied. 

^   AutobiograpRv,  ii.  210. 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  137 

On    Sunday   afternoons    the    **  Andrew    and 
Philip   Society  "   served   hot    meats,    oysters, 
tea    and    coffee    and    bread    to    hundreds   of 
hungry   men,   as  on  Tuesday   afternoons  the 
"  Mary  and   Martha  Society  "  did  to  hungry 
women.      Those  who   thronged    the    supper- 
tables   naturally  stayed  to  hear  of  Him  who 
taught   us    to    feed   the    poor    as   well    as   to 
preach  the  gospel  to  them ;    and  the  drunken 
and    degraded    were  led    to    Him    and  were 
so  changed  in  look  and  life  as  no  longer  to 
be  recognized  by  former  companions  in  sin. 
Ah,  if  we  have  but  the  will  and  self-sacrifice, 
we  may  reach  even  the  outcasts;   and  some 
whom  no  man  could   bind  or  tame   may  be 
found  clothed  and  in  their  right  mind,  sitting 
at  Jesus'  feet !     To  the  true  winner  of  souls, 
the  salvation  of  the  lost  is  the  golden  mile- 
stone  toward  which  all  roads  run;   he  is  so 
absorbed  in  reaching  this  great  end  that  he 
is   ready  to   use   any  proper  means  whereby 
to  save  some. 

House    to    house    visitation    is    a    mighty 
means  of  evangelizing,  for  it  gives  opportu- 


138  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

nity  for  individual  approach  and  appeal. 
Unhappily  this  is  done,  if  at  all,  occasionally 
and  spasmodically,  and  not  systematically 
and  habitually.  If  the  **  districting"  of  the 
great  cities  could  be  made  the  basis  for  a 
permanent  division  and  distribution  of  labor; 
if  each  church  would  undertake,  by  systematic 
visitation  within  an  assigned  territory,  to 
keep  track  of  non-church  goers,  invite  them 
to  come  to  the  place  of  worship  and  throw 
about  them  Love's  embracing  arms,  —  results, 
of  such  magnitude  as  we  little  suspect,  might 
follow. 

All  so-called  mission  movements  are  valu- 
able aids,  some  of  them  almost  indispensable 
to  permanent  evangelistic  success.  Mission 
Sunday-schools,  open-air  preaching,  gospel- 
tents,  cottage  prayer-meetings,  medical  and 
midnight  missions,  — whatever  brings  fellow- 
workers  into  contact  with  each  other  and 
with  unsaved  souls,  God  will  surely  honor 
and  bless.  No  church,  no  believer,  can  afford 
to  be  without  some  mission  work;  its  form 
is  of  minor  importance. 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  139 

''Christian  associations"  of  young  men  and 
young  women,  when  not  secularized,  wield  a 
grand  influence  in  evangelization ;  but  there 
is  danger  just  now  that  entertainments  and 
exhibitions,  lectures  and  socials,  gymnastic 
sports  and  debating  clubs,  may  absorb  ener- 
gies that  ought  to  be  spent  in  direct  labor 
for  souls.  These  association^  seem  part  of 
God's  plan  in  our  generation  to  develop  lay 
activity,  especially  among  the  young  men ; 
and  this  is  perhaps  their  chief  claim  to  our 
consideration  and  co-operation,  that  they 
train  workers  for  evangelism  and  then  set 
them  at  work. 

The  "■  Gospel  Temperance "  movement, 
under  the  guidance  of  such  men  as  John  B. 
Gough,  William  Noble,  Francis  Murphy, 
William  E.  Dodge,  and  Canon  Wilberforce, 
—  not  to  mention  certain  heroic  women  of  our 
day,  —  has  already  proved  a  mighty  evangel- 
izing power.  It  proves  at  least  a  John  the 
Baptist  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord ;  and 
when  such  as  Basil  Wilberforce  plead  the 
cause  of  temperance  it  is  a  John  the  Evan- 


140  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

gelist  pointing  to  the  Lamb  of  God.  In  his 
visit  to  the  United  States  he  addressed  great 
throngs  ;  but  whether  in  church  building, 
association  hall  or  opera-house  he  stood 
pleading  for  uncompromising  abstinence 
from  all  that  could  intoxicate,  the  whole 
burden  of  his  address  was  the  impotence  of 
the  old  Adam  will  to  break  the  bonds  of 
the  drink  habit,  and  the  saving,  keeping 
power  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

Canon  Wilberforce  himself  spoke  of  the 
fact  that  the  temperance  pledge  is  often  the 
forerunner  of  conversion.  He  mentioned 
one  gathering  where  six  hundred  working- 
men  rose  to  acknowledge  Jesus  as  their 
newly  found  Saviour,  and  it  was  noticeable 
that  every  one  of  them  had  on  the  blue 
ribbon,  which  showed  that  to  them  at  least 
temperance  had  led  the  way  to  faith. 

The  printing-press  must  not  be  forgotten 
among  the  foremost  helps  to  evangelistic 
work.  Printers'  ink !  Great  indeed  is  its 
power,  either  for  good  or  evil.  The  compe- 
tition  is   sharp    between   the  pulpit   and   the 


AIDS  AND  ACCESSORIES.  141 

press,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  which  wields  the 
most  imperial  sceptre.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  press  commands  the  greater 
audience,  whatever  its  comparative  authority. 
Such  an  agency  ought  to  be  used,  in  every 
way,  to  spread  the  gospel,  not  only  in  sub- 
sidizing columns  of  newspapers  for  reports 
of  sermons  and  for  advertisements,  but  in 
multiplying  printed  notices,  cards  of  invita- 
tion, and  other  devices  to  attract  the  eye  of 
the  casual  reader  or  passer-by.^  Men  of 
the  world  find  great  advantage  in  even  very 
costly  advertising.  They  give  wide  publicity 
to  their  business  enterprises,  and  multiply  de- 
vices to  attract  attention  and  draw  customers, 
though  in  many  cases  these  expedients  are 
traps  and  snares.  Why  should  not  the  chil- 
dren of  light  wisely  use  every  legitimate 
means  to  call  attention  to  the  courts  of  God's 
house  and  the  gospel  feast  there  spread,  and 
to  set  forth  the  fact  that  there  is  enough  for 
all,  and  that  it  is  free  to  all? 
1  See  Appendix  B,  C. 


42  EVANGELISTIC  WORK. 


CHAPTER   XI. 


THE   EVANGELISTIC    ERA. 


I  STORY  is  a  succession  of  divine 
crusades.  The  careful  observer  de- 
tects a  distinct  and  definite  plan  of 
Providence  in  every  generation ;  and  God's 
true  seers,  the  only  wise  and  great  in  His 
eyes,  are  they  who,  as  Prince  Albert  used  to 
say,  find  out  that  plan  and  fall  into  their  own 
place  in  it,  and  so  serve  their  own  generation 
by  the  will  of  God. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  God  led  on  a  crusade 
against  feudalism.  At  no  other  epoch  in 
history  perhaps  have  the  masses  of  mankind 
been  as  ill-treated  as  under  the  sway  of  the 
feudal  system.  Over  its  ruins  the  race  has 
marched  onward  toward  individual  intelli- 
gence and  independence,  and  the  main  hin- 
drances   to    intellectual    growth    and    social 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  ERA. 


143 


progress  to-day  are  the  surviving  relics  of 
that  ancient  thraldom.  Then  followed  the 
double  Reformation  in  philosophy  and  relig- 
ion, and  the  era  of  great  inventions.  God 
gave  the  Bible  to  the  common  people,  and 
the  mariner's  compass,  printing-press,  and 
steam-engine,  as  means  for  bearing  the  mis- 
sionary and  spreading  the  Word  over  the 
world.  Then  came  the  crusade  of  philan- 
thropy, when  such  as  Wilberforce  fought  to 
abolish  the  slave-trade  and  break  the  slave's 
fetters,  and  such  as  Shaftesbury  thought  and 
wrought  for  a  half-century  to  better  the  con- 
dition of  inmates  of  insane  asylums  and 
laborers  in  factories,  mines,  and  workshops. 
Under  the  same  divine  leadership  we  have 
come  to  the  great  Evangelistic  Era.  During 
the  last  fifty  years  the  grand  question  which 
has  absorbed  the  best  minds  and  hearts  in  the 
Church  of  God  is  how  to  bear  the  message 
of  life  to  the  whole  human  race  as  soon  as 
practicable.  Home  missions  and  foreign  mis- 
sions are  but  two  gigantic  arms  of  one  still 
more  gigantic  work,  — a  world's  evangelization. 


144  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

When  and  where  God  leads,  the  true  disci- 
ple follows.  He  dares  not  be  indifferent  or 
heedless  when  God  says,  "  Go  forward !  " 
This  age  is  at  once  intensely  individual  and 
intensely  universal ;  emphasizing  on  the  one 
hand  individual  development  and  responsi- 
bility; on  the  other,  the  duty  and  privilege 
of  doing  good  to  all  men.  Because  this 
movement  is  of  God  it  cannot  be  stopped ; 
the  waves  will  not  be  swept  back  and  the 
tide  is  fast  rising;  the  very  roar  of  the  surf 
is  God's  voice  of  thunder  calling  His  people 
to  leave  no  human  soul  to  live  and  die  with- 
out the  gospel.  But  before  this  great  work 
is  accomplished  or  even  attempted  on  a  proper 
scale,  there  are  some  truths  and  facts  which 
the  Church  of  God  must  come  to  see  and 
feel. 

The  Reformation  was  only  a  day  dawn 
after  long  and  deep  darkness.  The  old  truth 
of  justification  by  faith  was  exhumed  from 
the  rubbish  of  half-pagan  rites,  false  doc- 
trines, superstitious  forms ;  the  right  of  the 
people  to  have  and  to  interpret  the  Word  of 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  ERA.  145 

God  was  affirmed  and  vindicated ;  and  a  new 
and  mighty  impulse  was  given  to  Evangelical 
truth  and  life,  which  were  not  only  exhumed 
but  revived.  Yet  even  so  great  a  Reforma- 
tion left  the  Church  in  alliance  with  the 
State,  and  the  hierarchical  spirit  prevalent; 
and  so  secularism  and  clericalism  survived. 
Worst  of  all  the  failures  of  the  Reformation 
was  this,  that  the  revival  of  Evangelical  faith 
did  so  little  directly  to  revive  evangelistic 
activity.  For  three  hundred  years  more  the 
Church  remained  in  a  half-dead  condition,  as 
to  the  heathen  world,  either  treating  her 
obligations  with  contemptuous  indifference  or 
denying  her  debt  altogether.  And  the  con- 
sequence was  that  there  were  signs  of  a  lapse 
backward  into  barbarism !  From  the  year 
1700  to  about  the  time  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution there  was  a  fearful  decay  of  spiritual 
life.  Both  in  England  and  America  there 
was  an  awful  dearth  of  conversions  and 
almost  a  death  of  piety ;  the  land  was  flooded 
with  infidelity  and  immorality;  it  was  the 
feature  of  the  age  that  Christianity  was  treated 


146  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

with  open  disregard  and  made  the  butt  of 
ridicule.  Christ  was  no  longer  preached. 
Early  in  the  reign  of  George  III.,  Blackstone, 
the  legal  commentator,  had  the  curiosity  to 
go  successively  to  hear  every  clergyman  of 
note  in  London,  and  heard  not  one  discourse 
which  had  more  Christianity  in  it  than  the 
writings  of  Cicero,  or  from  which  he  could 
have  learned  whether  the  author  were  a  fol- 
lower of  Confucius  or  Zoroaster,  Mahomet  or 
Christ ! 

This  plain  drift  backward  toward  the  dark 
ages  was  another  illustration  of  the  great 
fact  that  Evangelical  faith  and  evangelistic 
work  must  go  together.  The  decline  of 
either  risks  the  other;  and  therefore  no  revi- 
val of  Evangelical  faith  is  complete,  or  will  be 
permanent,  which  is  not  closely  followed  by 
evangelistic  effort. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  last  century  God 
has  been  leading  the  way  for  a  new  Reforma- 
tion, and  already  there  is  a  great  advance. 
It  began  in  a  revival  of  preaching  that  was 
both   Evangelical  and   evangelistic.     At   this 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  ERA.  1 4/ 

very  juncture  which  marked  the  crisis  of 
modern  history,  God  raised  up  the  apostles 
of  this  new  era  of  evangeUsm:  Whitefield 
and  the  Wesleys,  Grimshaw,  Romaine,  Row- 
lands, Toplady,  Fletcher,  Edwards,  —  these 
were  a  few  of  the  men  whom  He  had  pre- 
pared to  herald  this  new  Reformation.  They 
preached  the  old  gospel  of  apostolic  days, 
everywhere,  at  all  times,  fearlessly,  faithfully, 
fervently,  pointedly;  they  taught  the  su- 
premacy and  sufficiency  of  Holy  Scripture ; 
the  fulness  and  freeness  of  Christ's  satisfac- 
tion for  sin ;  the  universal  need  of  the  new 
birth;  justification  by  faith  and  the  vital  link 
between  faith  and  holiness  ;  and  God's  eternal 
hatred  of  sin  and  love  toward  sinners.  The 
end  and  effect  of  such  preaching  were  the 
preparation  of  the  Church  for  the  evangel- 
istic era,  now  just  in  its  dawn  or  early 
morning. 

Whitefield,  Wesley,  and  others  who  were 
pioneers  in  this  great  movement  were  evan- 
gelists and  open-air  preachers.  They  not 
only   led   the  way  in  holding  up   a  crucified 


148  EVANGELISTIC  WORK. 

Christ,  but  they  set  the  example  of  seeking 
and  going  after  the  lost,  and  so  stimulated  a 
wide  evangelism.  The  Church  as  a  body- 
did  not  feel  the  force  of  her  obligation  to  a 
lost  world  ;  and  those  who  did,  and  who 
urged  it,  met  of  course  with  opposition. 
Every  great  advance  in  piety  or  philan- 
thropy, or  even  philosophy  and  invention, 
has  encountered  at  least  the  inevitable  vis 
inerticE. 

The  era  of  modern  missions  was  born  only 
through  throes.  Dr.  Ryland  bade  Carey  ''sit 
down "  and  not  presume  to  undertake  the 
conversion  of  the  heathen.  The  Scotch 
Assembly  branded  such  schemes  as  fanati- 
cal, revolutionary,  dangerous  ;  Sydney  Smith 
trailed  the  guns  of  his  satire  against  the 
**  nest  of  consecrated  cobblers,"  caricaturing 
that  humble  missionary  band  with  their 
twelve-and-sixpence.  But  even  to-day  hun- 
dreds of  professed  children  of  God  do  not 
yet  see  that  God  is  leading  on  the  last  and 
greatest  crusade  of  history,  and  that  he  who 
seeks    to    overthrow    it    fights    against    God, 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  ERA.  149 

while  he  who  does  not  join  it  turns  his  back 
on  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  Host ! 

This  revival  of  universal  evangelism  is 
the  New  Reformation,  and  notwithstanding  the 
apathy  of  the  great  body  of  Christians  the 
crusade  has  made  great  advance.  We  are 
nearing  the  close  of  a  century  of  missions, 
during  which  more  doors  of  access  have 
been  opened,  more  missionary  organizations 
formed,  more  laborers  sent  forth,  more  new 
translations  of  the  Bible  made  and  more 
copies  scattered,  more  converts  gathered 
from  Pagan,  Papal,  and  Moslem  communities, 
more  evangelists  raised  up,  and  more  evan- 
gelizing agencies  set  in  motion,  than  during 
a  thousand  years  preceding ! 

But  as  yet  we  have  only  begun  our  return 
toward  the  primitive,  scriptural,  apostolic 
basis.  We  still  hinder  the  full  display  of 
God's  power  by  clinging  to  the  mistake  of 
centuries.  What  is  that  mistake?  Not  the 
secular  spirit  which  leavens  the  Church  and 
leaves  men  of  the  world  to  guide  its  affairs, 
shape  its  policy,  and  even  box-in  its  pulpit ; 


150  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

not  the  hierarchical  spirit  which  Hfts  the 
ministry  into  a  clerical  caste  and  builds  a 
barrier  between  them  and  the  laity,  even  in 
work  for  Christ.  All  this  is  bad  enough;  but 
worse  than  all  and  underlying  all  is  the 
practical  denial  of  the  responsibility  of  every 
individual  believer  for  reaching  tmsaved  souls 
with  the  gospel. 

The  spirit  of  indifferentism  is  still  abroad 
in  the  Church.  What  most  of  us  do  to  save 
the  heathen  at  home  or  abroad,  we  do  by 
proxy.  We  substitute  for  our  own  individual, 
personal  work,  other  men  and  at  best  our 
money.  Voluntary  societies  acting  for  the 
Church  take  the  place  of  the  whole  Church. 
Out  of  some  thirty  million  Protestant  church- 
members,  with  over  one  hundred  million 
nominal  adherents,  some  five  thousand  labor- 
ers go  abroad,  and  we  give  them  a  meagre 
support  and  rest  content:  are  we  not  evan- 
gelizing the  heathen  ?  We  give  one  out  of 
perhaps  five  hundred  to  labor  as  preacher  or 
evangelist  in  fields  nearer  by,  and  here  and 
there  a  few  more  to  teach  classes  in  Sunday- 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  ERA.  151 

schools;    but   where    are    the    multitudes    of 
believers?      In    their    counting-houses    and 
workshops,   in   the   marts  of   commerce  and 
the     offices     of    the     learned     professions  ; 
and  the  most  of  them  absorbed  in  their  own 
worldly   business.      If  to-day  the   five   thou- 
sand  missionaries  with  their   native  helpers, 
and    the    faithful    souls  in    home    fields    who 
are  working  to   save  the   lost,  were  suddenly 
snatched  away  by  a  divine  rapture  as  Enoch 
and    Elijah   were,  who   would    carry  on  the 
work  of  evangelization? 

Oh  for  some  new  John  the  Baptist  or  Luther 
or  Wesley  to   prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord 
and  sound  the  trumpet  of  this  new  Reforma- 
tion;  to  provoke  a  listless,  torpid  Church  to 
love   and   good  works !     Again  we  repeat  it, 
and  write  it  in  large  letters  as  on  tablets  by 
the  wayside  that  he  who  readeth  it  may  run 
to  do  God's  bidding:    EVERY  believer  is 
God's  witness,  worker,  warrior.     The 
scriptural  idea   and    ideal  is    a   whole    body 
of  believers    at   work    for    souls  ;     universal 
activity,  world-wide    evangelism.     It    took  a 


152  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

whole  Christ  to  redeem ;  it  will  take  a  whole 
Church  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  to  apply 
redemption.  The  great  commission  was  ad- 
dressed to  every  believer,  and  must  be  so 
accepted.  It  is  not  needful  that  all  should 
forsake  other  honest  and  honorable  employ- 
ments in  order  to  become  professional 
preachers.  "  Let  every  man,  in  that  calling 
wherein  he  is  found,  therein  abide  with  God." 
Not  a  new  sphere  of  work,  but  new  work  in 
our  sphere.  "  Service  "  must  be  emblazoned 
on  our  banners,  and  become  our  watchword. 
Our  secular  calling  must  become  a  divine 
vocation.  The  world  is  Avide,  and  the  work 
is  as  wide  as  the  world.  There  is  a  place  for 
every  willing  worker,  according  to  his  ability. 
But  to  every  one  of  us  a  dispensation  of  the 
gospel  is  committed ;  and  only  he  who  hears 
and  heeds  this  call  to  work  can  give  a  proper 
account  of  his  stewardship. 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT  I  53 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   EVANGELISTIC    SPIRIT. 

IDEON  spread  his  fleece  to  catch  the 
heavenly  dew;  it  was  dry  on  all 
the  floor,  but  the  fleece  was  wet. 
The  sign,  worth  all  others,  that  God  will 
save  souls  by  our  word  and  work  is  that  we 
are  like  fleece  saturated  with  celestial  moist- 
ure. All  the  best  methods  fail  without  that 
last,  best  gift,  the  Spirit's  anointing.  This 
is  a  divine  enduement  and  endowment;  yet 
there  are  natural  conditions,  as  the  fleece  was 
a  "  condition  "  of  the  dew. 

I.  No  man  can  expect  the  evangelistic  bap- 
tism who  does  not  heartily  accept  the  evait- 
gelistic  principle.  The  gospel's  mission  and 
our  mission  is  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
is  lost.  Every  believer,  being  as  such  sent 
to  preach  the  gospel,  is  to  make  the  advances 


154  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

and  take  up  positive,  personal,  aggressive 
Christian   work. 

Moreover,  we  must  conceive  of  our  mission 
as  to  the  masses  of  mankuid,  not  an  elect  few, 
a  select  class.  To  what  we  invidiously  call 
the  "common  people"  the  bulk  of  the  race 
belong,  and  from  them  the  bulk  of  disciples 
always  have  come  and  will  come.  When 
Jesus  saw  the  multitudes  He  was  moved 
with  compassion.  The  crowning  proof  of  His 
messiahship  was  His  preaching  to  the  poor; 
and  the  crowning  joy  of  His  work  that,  while 
rulers  derided,  the  common  people  gladly 
heard  Him.^ 

We  have,  to  guide  us,  both  a  divine  plan 
and  an  historic  fact.  "  God  hath  chosen  the 
poor  of  this  world  rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of 
the  promises."  He  has  not  called  many  of 
the  rich,  mighty,  worldly-wise,  and  high-born  ; 
but  He  has  called  these  five  classes :  the 
**  foolish,"  "  weak,"  '  base,"  ''  despised,"  and 
"those  that  are  not,"  — the  nonentities.^   What- 

1  Matt.  ix.  36;  xi.  5;  James  ii.  1-4. 

2  I    Cor.   i.   27,   28,   TO  /XT?   OVTO.. 


THE  E  VANGELISTIC  SPIRIT.  1 5  5 

ever  we  may  think  of  this  plan  of  God,  the 
fact  is  that  for  nearly  two  thousand  years 
the  successes  of  the  gospel  have  been  among 
the  poor,  lowly,  and  outcast ;  while  pharisees 
sneer  and  cavil,  doubt  and  deride,  publicans 
and  harlots  go  into  the  kingdom. 

The  giant  foe  of  human  progress  has  been 
CASTE,  the  building  up  of  artificial,  arbitrary 
distinctions  between  man  and  man,  —  a  wall 
of  pasteboard  in  essence ;  in  effect,  a  wall  of 
adamant.  Caste  has  separated  nations;  in 
the  same  nation,  tribes;  in  the  same  tribe, 
families;  in  the  same  family,  husband  and 
wife,  sons  and  daughters.  It  crushes  and 
quenches  the  very  hope  of  betterment  by 
which  man  is  saved  from  stagnation  and 
despair,  and  dooms  him  to  stay  where  he 
was  born,  however  low  his  level.  By  an 
inexorable  fatalism  it  decrees  that,  from 
ignorance,  superstition,  want,  and  woe,  he 
shall  have  no  escape.  God  would  give 
neither  sanction  nor  recognition  to  such  a 
monster  as  caste,  and  hence  did  not  choose 
those    who     would    naturally     claim     caste- 


6  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 


privileges.^  To  have  treated  these  superfi- 
cial social  distinctions  as  implying  merit  or 
virtue  would  have  been  to  imply  a  difference 
in  human  need,  as  though  the  Jiigh-boni  had 
less  need  to  be  new  born.  Therefore  does 
God  teach  us  that  so  far  as  there  is  differ- 
ence, He  makes  us  to  differ ;  and  that  in  the 
fact  of  sinfulness  and  condemnation  there  is 
no  difference,  and  we  must  make  none. 
While,  however,  God  gives  no  false  encour- 
agement to  the  rich  and  wise  and  mighty, 
He  throws  no  discouragement  in  the  way  of 
any  class,  for  in  calling  the  lowest  he  calls 
the  highest.  What  is  broad  enough  for  the 
base  of  the  pyramid  is  broad  enough  for 
all  that  is  above  it.  The  highest  has  only 
to  take  his  place  among  the  lowest,  and  he 
gets  the  fulness  of  blessing. 

We  have  enlarged  upon  this,  because  it  is 
a  fundamental  principle  of  evangelism.  In 
God's  eyes  he  only  is  a  true  preacher  or 
teacher  of  the  good  tidings  who  seeks  to 
save    souls    as    such,    and   who    accepts    the 

1  2  Kings  V.  II,  12. 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT.  I57 

gospel's  mission  and  his  own  as  beinrj  to  the 
whole  lost  family  of  man,  and  not  to  any 
elect  aristocracy.  He  only  has  the  evangel- 
istic spirit  to  whom  the  gospel  is  the  great 
leveller.  The  worker  for  souls  who  will  prove 
the  winner  of  souls  comes  with  the  same 
gospel  to  all  alike.  Like  his  Master  before 
him  he  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 

For  any  other  attitude  toward  lost  men 
there  is  no  adequate  apology,  even  in  the 
affinity  of  culture,  refined  taste,  and  sensibil- 
ity. To  consult  affinity  and  refinement  takes 
the  very  sinews  out  of  evangelism.  F.  W. 
Robertson,  the  "  friend  of  the  workingman  " 
was  asked  how,  with  such  superlative  refine- 
ment and  cultured  sensibilities  he  could 
endure  close  contact  with  so  much  that  was 
coarse  and  rude ;  and  his  answer  was  :  "  My 
tastes  are  with  the  aristocracy,  but  my  prin- 
ciples are  with  the  mob."  The  final  outcome 
of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  philosophy  was: 
there  is  nothing  really  great  on  earth  but 
man ;  and  nothing  really  great  in  man  but 
his  soul. 


158  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Again  we  write  it,  —  as  with  a  pen  of  iron 
and  the  point  of  a  diamond,  —  he  only  is  fit 
to  work  for  souls  whose  first  law  is  to  honor 
all  men  and  despise  or  neglect  no  man. 
God's  eye-salve  has  never  yet  anointed  his 
eyes  who  does  not  see  the  greatness  of  the 
soul  in  the  greatness  of  its  ruin ;  who  does 
not  see  all  on  a  level  hopelessly,  helplessly 
lost  without  Christ;  who  does  not  see  that 
the  same  gospel  is  sent  to,  and  fitted  for,  all ; 
and  that  the  smallest  measure  of  capacity 
that  is  equal  to  responsible  sin  is  equal  to 
voluntary  acceptance  of  salvation. 

2.  This  principle  is  the  basis  oi  passion  for 
souls,  which  is  its  natural  if  not  necessary 
outcome.  The  believer  who  begins,  not  by 
denying,  but  by  confessing,  that  he  is  his 
brother's  keeper,  will  find  his  brother's  keep- 
ing getting  to  be  more  and  more  a  matter 
not  of  conscience  only,  but  also  of  love. 

This  passion  for  souls  is  the  next  sign  and 
test  of  the  evangelistic  spirit.  And  of  all 
human  qualifications  for  winning  souls,  no 
other  can  be  compared  with  this.     If  not  the 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT.  I  59 

equivalent  of  unction,  it  is  inseparable  from 
it ;  if  it  be  not  the  dew,  it  is  the  fleece  that 
holds  the  dew. 

Francis  Xavier,  *'the  apostle  of  the  Indies," 
misguided  as  he  was,  flamed  with  this  con- 
suming passion  for  souls.  He  washed  the 
sores  and  cleansed  the  clothes  of  a  crew  sick 
with  scurvy ;  rang  a  bell  in  the  streets  of  Goa 
to  call  pupils  to  his  school ;  and  after  a  fear- 
ful vision  of  perils  and  privations  before  him, 
as  the  price  of  winning  isles  and  empires  to 
Christ,  he  could  only  cry :  '*  Yet  more,  O  my 
God,  yet  more  !  "  No  marvel  if  during  ten 
years  he.  visited  fifty  kingdoms,  preached 
over  nine  thousand  miles  of  territory,  and 
baptized  a  million  persons. 

This  passion  for  souls  is  God's  corrective 
for  a  fastidious  hypercriticism.  Dr.  Dufl"  met 
some  who  could  not  endure  foreign  missions 
"because  they  smelt  so  bad,"  —  like  a  charac- 
ter in  modern  fiction  who  "  could  n't  stand 
the  poo7^  smell,"  —  but  there  is  a  love  that 
makes  one  oblivious  of  sights  and  sounds 
and  smells  that  stand  between  lost  souls  and 


l6o  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

salvation.  Passion  for  souls  inspires  a  labor 
of  love  to  which  self-sacrifice  is  nothing,  for 
that  is  the  very  law  of  love.  See  Ignatius  the 
martyr  facing  the  fierce  Numidian  lion  in  the 
arena  and  saying,  *'  I  am  grain  of  God  !  I 
must  be  ground  between  the  lion's  teeth  to 
make  bread  for  His  people." 

Such  voluntary  sacrifice  inspired  by  pas- 
sion for  souls  gives  to  life  its  divinest  beauty. 
That  taunt,  **  He  saved  others;  Himself  He 
cannot  save  !  "  is  truth,  unconsciously  told. 
Poussa  the  potter,  after  many  efforts  to  make 
a  porcelain  set  for  the  Emperor's  table, 
despairing  of  making  anything  worthy  of  a 
king's  acceptance,  flung  himself  into  the  fur- 
nace where  he  was  glazing  his  masterpieces. 
And  they  say  that  such  heavenly  beauty 
never  gilded  wares  before,  as  made  them 
shine.  The  Chinese  sages  in  this  fable  were 
writing  more  wisely  than  they  knew. 

Such  passion  for  souls  quickens  our  in- 
ventive powers,  and  leads  to  new  devices  to 
reach  men.  There  was  a  poor  cobbler  with 
spectacles    on    his    nose    and    an    old    shoe 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT  l6l 

between  his  knees,  —  his  forehead  and  mouth 
indicating  great  decision  of  character,  and  his 
eyes,  benevolence,  —  around  whom   a  group 
of  poor  children  might  have  been  seen  sitting 
or  standing  busy  with  their  lessons.     It  was 
John  Pounds,  of  Portsmouth,  — **  father  of  rag- 
ged schools."     When  both  Church  and  State 
left   these    little    waifs    to    run  wild    to    ruin, 
this    consecrated   cobbler,   moved   with    pity, 
went    in    person    on   the    streets   and    quays, 
gathered  them  in,  and   taught  them    lessons 
in    reading,   and  in   virtue,    temperance,    and 
piety.     Unknown  to  fame,  comp'elled  to  earn 
his  bread  at  his  bench,  he  saved  from  vice  to 
a  better   life   at  least  five  hundred    children. 
And  it  was  a  very  peculiar  evangelistic  argu- 
ment that  he  used.     He  would  run  after,  and 
hunt  down,  some  shy,  hungry,  ragged  urchin, 
and   win    his   trust    by    puttijig    a   hot   roast 
potato  under  his  nose.     And  so   in  his  little 
shop,  seven    feet   by  fifteen,   thirty   or  forty 
boys  would  crowd ;   nay,  they  loved  him  so 
that  they  would  sit  outside  on  the  street  to 
be  near  him. 

II 


1 62  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

Such  passion  for  souls  brings  its  reward, 
even  here.  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  after  enu- 
merating his  various  discoveries  in  natural 
philosophy  and  chemistry,  added :  *'  But  the 
greatest  of  my  discoveries  is  Michael  Fara- 
day!  "  —  the  poor  apprentice  of  a  bookbinder 
whom  he  helped  to  an  education,  and  who 
outshone  even  his  illustrious  patron.  The 
earnest  worker  who  loves  souls  is  on  a  con- 
stant tour  of  discovery.  He  detects  fine  gold 
even  in  rough  quartz  crystals,  sapphires  in 
clay,  opals  in  sand,  diamonds  in  soot;  and 
brings  fragrant  flowers  out  of  sterile  sands 
and  foul  marshes. 

3.  Where  the  principle  of  evangelism  is 
thoroughly  accepted,  and  passion  for  souls 
is  awakened,  there  are  the  two  most  im- 
portant conditions  of  that  divine  cndue- 
ment  which  is  called  tinction,  the  crowning 
gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  service.  He 
who  would  win  souls  needs  the  winning 
grace  which  only  God  can  give.  No  words 
can  describe  this  gift,  but  it  may  be  known 
and   felt. 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT  1 63 

It  is  a  chrism  of  power,  an  anointing.  It 
is  eye-salve  to  the  eyes,  to  enable  us  clearly 
to  see  sin  in  its  enormity  and  deformity, 
heaven  and  hell  in  their  reality,  and  man's 
need  and  God's  grace.  It  imparts  that  di- 
vine sense  of  the  powers  of  the  world  to 
come  which  is  the  grand  secret  of  converting 
power.  It  touches  the  tongue,  and  prepares 
us  to  speak  attractively  and  effectively  the 
message  of  grace.  It  is  like  the  holy  oil 
poured  on  Aaron's  head  and  running  down 
to  the  skirts  of  his  garment,  communicating 
to  the  whole  man  a  nameless  charm  like 
fragrance. 

This  is  the  baptism  of  fire.  Nothing  burns 
its  way  through  all  obstacles  like  fire;  noth- 
ing so  melts  and  moulds,  so  transforms 
and  transfigures.  It  is  a  baptism  of  power. 
It  gives  strength  to  the  weakest  and  flu- 
ency to  the  stammering  tongue.  When 
the  Spirit  comes  on  the  believer  for  ser- 
vice, all  God's  truths  are  such  verities 
and  realities  that  he  knows  them  as  truths 
and    cannot    hold    his    peace  ;    he    is    weary 


1 64  EVAA^GELISTIC    WORK. 

with  forbearing  ;  silence  is  harder  than 
speech. 

There  is  much  zeal  that,  as  Dr.  Bonar  says, 
consists  mainly  of  personal  ambition  and 
bigotry,  love  of  praise  and  love  of  authority, 
pride  of  talent  and  pride  of  denomination, 
with  but  a  fraction  of  love  to  God  and  love 
to  man.  But  when  the  Holy  Spirit  inspires 
our  zeal,  the  earthen  vessel  emptied  of  self 
is  filled  with  God,  —  ''a  vessel  unto  honor, 
sanctified  and  meet  for  the  Master's  use,  and 
prepared  unto  every  good  work."^ 

Such  a  divine  gift  comes  only  in  answer  to 
prayer;  and  therefore  all  evangelistic  work 
not  begun,  continued,  and  ended  on  our 
knees,  gauged  by  God's  standards  is  a  fail- 
ure. Socrates  said  that  his  work  in  Athens 
was  to  bring  men  *'  from  ignorance  uncon- 
scious to  ignorance  conscious."  Our  first 
need  is  the  consciousness  of  need.  We  must 
feel  that  in  the  Spirit  of  God  alone  lies  all 
power  to  convert.  Even  the  truth  and  the 
blood  cannot  save  unless  He  applies  them. 

1  2  Timothy  ii.  2i. 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT  1 65 

Saint  Antoninus  of  Florence,  in  a  fable, 
represents  Satan  as  preaching  the  gospel  in 
the  disguise  of  a  friar.  When  asked  why 
he,  the  foe  of  God  and  man,  proclaimed 
the  truth,  he  answered  that  nothing  is  so 
hardening  as  the  gospel  preached  without 
unction  ;  and  that,  as  he  had  no  unction, 
it  was  only  a  savor  of  death.  The  best 
preaching,  with  the  best  aids  to  impres- 
sion, cannot  bring  one  soul  to  submit  and 
commit  all  to  Christ  ;  but  let  the  Spirit 
breathe  on  a  congregation,  and,  like  blades  of 
grass  in  a  breeze,  stubborn  wills  bow.  They 
who  most  honor  the  Spirit  are  those  whom 
the  Spirit  most  honors.  No  time  is  lost  in 
waiting  for  the  Spirit.  "TARRY  YE  .  .  .  UNTIL 
YE  BE  ENDUED  WITH  POWER  FROM  ON 
HIGH  !  " 


PART    II. 
EVANGELISTIC  WORK  IN  PRACTICE. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

WHITEFIELD,   THE    FIELD    EVANGELIST. 


F  history  is  "  philosophy,  teaching 
by  examples,"  no  proper  discussion 
of  evangelistic  work  can  afford  to 
pass  by  this  prince  of  evangelists,  who  led 
the  way  as  a  field  preacher.  Even  Wesley  is 
in  this  respect  his  pupil,  following  the  lead 
of  Whitefield.i 

In  the  old  South  Church,  at  Newburyport, 
Massachusetts,  is  his  cenotaph  surmounted 
by  a  symbol  of  immortality,  a  flame  bursting 
from  an  uncovered  urn.  The  epitaph  records 
that  he  was  "  born  at  Gloucester,  England, 
Dec.  1 6,  1 7 14;  educated  at  Oxford  Univer- 
sity; ordained  in  1736;  that  in  a  ministry 
of  thirty-four  years  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 
thirteen  times  and  preached  over  eighteen 
thousand  sermons." 

1  Wedgwood's  Life  of  Wesley,  177. 


I/O  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

This  remarkable  preacher  united  the  mind 
of  a  cherub  and  the  heart  of  a  seraph  with 
a  voice  such  as  is  rarely  bestowed  on  any  of 
the  sons  of  men.  But  no  natural  gifts  would 
have  made  him  the  evangelist  that  he  was, 
but  for  his  ardent  and  fervent  piety.  His 
holy  zeal,  unselfish  love,  passion  for  souls, 
gave  to  his  look,  speech,  attitude,  and  action, 
unexampled  energy.  Probably  "  no  other 
uninspired  man  ever  preached  to  so  large 
assemblies,  or  enforced  the  simple  truths  of 
the  gospel  by  motives  so  persuasive  and 
awful,  and  with  an  influence  so  powerful 
upon  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.'' 

His  career  furnishes  encouragement  to 
those  whose  early  life  has  been  passed  in 
sin,  but  who  would  spend  all  their  remaining 
years  in  service  to  God  and  to  souls.  He 
confesses  that  for  sixteen  years  he  hated 
instruction,  and  wasted  money  and  time  in 
the  company  of  youths  whose  mockery  of 
virtue  and  religion  brought  him  nigh  to  the 
scat  of  the  scorner  in  the  vestibule  of  hell. 
But  beneath  all  his  early  vices  ran  the  under- 


WHITEFIELD.  171 

current  of  a  restless  conscience;  and  when 
the  inn  at  Gloucester  was  dark  and  still,  the 
Tavern-keeper's  boy  sat  often,  late  at  night 
reading  the  Bible  which  he  was  yet  to  wield 
as  a  weapon  of  such  power. 

In  his  eighteenth  year,  at  Oxford,  he  joined 
the  holy  club,  led  by  the  Wesleys,  known  as 
''  Methodists  "  because  the  members  lived 
by  rigid  rule,  and  whose  threefold  aim  was 
salvation,  sanctification,  service.  From  quiet- 
ism the  pendulum  now  swung  to  asceticism, 
and,  like  Luther,  Whitefield  sought  peace 
through  fasting,  penance,  and  prayer.  He 
cultivated  humility  by  wearing  dirty  shoes 
and  patched  breeches,  as  though  clean  shoes 
and  a  clean  heart,  wholeness  of  garments  and 
holiness  of  life,  were  incompatible!  These 
rigors  begat  morbid  melancholy  and  then 
a  seven  weeks'  sickness,  during  which  he 
learned  his  first  great  lesson,  — that  simple 
trust  in    Jesus  lifts   the  load  of  sin. 

He  began  now  to  devour  the  Bible,  com- 
mune with  God,  and  visit  the  poor  and  the 
prisoner.      He    had    a    manifest    call    to    the 


172  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

ministry.  Born  an  orator,  at  twelve  years 
of  age  he  had  charmed  visitors  by  his  easy, 
graceful  declamation,  and  was  wont  to  imitate 
clergymen,  reading  prayers  and  even  com- 
posing sermons.  His  friends  pressed  him  to 
apply  for  holy  orders ;  and  the  fame  of  his 
powers  and  piety  led  Bishop  Benson  to  offer 
to  consecrate  him  at  once  as  a  deacon,  not- 
withstanding his  youth.  His  humility  shrank 
from  such  a  responsible  step,  but  he  was 
ordained  at  the  age  of  twenty-one. 

On  the  next  Sabbath  he  preached  his  first 
sermon,  and  with  such  simplicity,  authority, 
and  unction  that  it  was  plain  God  had  raised 
him  up  for  a  great  work.  Some  complained 
to  the  bishop  that  his  "enthusiasm  had  driven 
fifteen  people  mad :  "  his  quaint  reply  was 
that  he  only  hoped  the  madness  might  last 
till  the  next  Sabbath.  He  soon  left  for  Lon- 
don, where  such  crowds  thronged  to  hear 
him  that  the  police  had  to  stand  guard. 

The  Wesleys  had  sailed  for  Georgia,  and 
Whitefield's  mind  turning  the  same  Avay,  he 
sailed     for    America     in     December,     1737. 


WHITEFIELD.  1 73 

Burning  with   love  for   souls,   he   made   that 
ocean  voyage    memorable.      The    cabin    be- 
came a  cloister,  the  steerage  a  school-room, 
and  the  deck  a  church.^     He  preached  thrice 
a  day  and   oftener   on   Sunday;    and   before 
his   mighty   appeals    even   the  toughest   tars 
bowed  and  bent  like  reeds  in  the  wind.     Six 
voyages  to  England  and  back  succeeded  that 
first  journey  to  these  shores,  and  the   inter- 
vals were  full  of  ceaseless  toil  for  souls.     For 
thirty  years  he  averaged  one  and  a  half  ser- 
mons   a    day,   visiting   over    fifty  towns    and 
cities    in  New   England    and   as   many  more 
from    New   York    to    Georgia,    and   at   least 
seventy    places    in    Britain.      His    audiences 
averaged  two  thousand,  and  at  times  swelled 
to  incredible  size;    some  say,  at  Kingswood 
and  Cornwall,  to  ten  thousand ;   at  Philadel- 
phia, to  twenty  thousand  ;  at  Boston  Common, 
to    thirty    thousand;    and    at    Moorfields,   to 
sixty  thousand  ! 

He  was  driven  to  the  fields  by  the  action 
of  ecclesiastics.     At    Bristol,   shut  out  from 

1  Belcher's  Life  of  Whitefield. 


1/4  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

the  churches,  the  taunt  was  flung  at  him, 
that  if  he  would  convert  the  heathen  he  might 
try  his  hand  upon  the  Kingswood  colhers. 
He  took  up  the  challenge,  and  on  Feb.  17, 
1739,  he  first  attempted  to  speak  to  these 
wild  men  on  that  wild  common  near  Bristol. 
A  hundred  of  them  came  to  stare  at  the 
eccentric  stranger,  but  soon  increased  to 
twenty  thousand ;  and  down  their  grimy 
faces  the  tears  rolled  and  left  ''white  gutters" 
in  the  black  soot.  Nor  were  those  transient 
tears  the  only  proofs  of  the  power  of  his 
preaching.  When,  months  after,  he  left  Bris- 
tol, a  swarthy  train  followed  him  and  halted 
at  Kingswood  to  spread  a  feast  for  him  and 
astonish  him  by  a  liberal  subscription  for  a 
charity  school  among  the  colliers. 

This  providential  moving  of  the  Pillar 
showed  Whitefield  that  the  open  field  was  to 
be  his  sanctuary.  He  had  not  been  shut  out 
of  the  churches  in  vain ;  they  might  have 
shut  him  in.  Two  months  after  his  first  ad- 
dress at  Kingswood,  he  spoke  to  vast  throngs 
at    Moorfields,  where   not  only  the   abjectly 


WHITEFIELD.  I  /  5 

poor  but  the  lowest  class  of  the  population 
were  found. ^  He  was  warned  not  to  go, 
and  that  he  would  not  return  alive.  But, 
unattended  save  by  two  friends,  he  stormed 
Satan's  stronghold  in  the  heart  of  London. 
He  was  treated  not  only  with  decency  but 
with  respect.  His  evening  audience  at  Ken- 
nington  Common  was  equally  attentive  and 
courteous,  joining  in  the  psalm  and  Lord's 
prayer  as  quietly  as  in  any  church.  And 
the  thought  dropped  like  a  seed  from  God 
into  his  heart,  —  "Why  should  I  not  preach 
where  none  need  go  away  disappointed?" 

Following  the  divine  leading,  he  deter- 
mined without  regard  to  the  opinion  of  man 
or  his  own  personal  ease  to  take  to  the  open 
field.  At  Kennington  such  a  vast  host  filled 
the  river  stairs  that  the  watermen  had  to  put 
on  hundreds  of  additional  boats,  and  even 
then  their  wherries  were  overloaded  by  the 
ladies  who  pressed  into  them.  And  thus,  by 
no  sudden  caprice  or  studied  scheme,  but  by 
simple    surrender  to  the    pressure  of  events 

1  April  29,  1739. 


1/6  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

and  the  leading  of  God's  Providence,  White- 
field  accepted  the  itinerant  life  of  a  field 
preacher,  and  led  into  the  same  path  his 
illustrious  contemporary,  John  Wesley. 

To  these  *'  mad  notions  "  of  a  man  who 
could  not  be  kept  from  preaching  the  gospel 
by  the  narrow  exclusiveness  and  stilted  state- 
liness  of  the  church  of  his  day,  and  to  the 
"immoderate  zeal"  which  led  him  to  break 
through  the  restraint  of  forms,  and  throw 
away  alike  liturgy  and  manuscript,  we  owe 
the  mightiest  extempore  sermons  that  ever 
fell  from  human  lips,  heard  by  throngs  such 
as  never  before  waited  upon  any  preacher's 
voice.  Not  only  the  colliers  of  Kingswood, 
the  miners  of  Cornwall,  and  the  rabble  at 
Moorfields,  but  the  nobility  and  gentry  of 
England  and  the  untitled  nobility  of  Amer- 
ica confessed  the  wonderful  power  of  his 
preaching. 

Can  we  learn  any  secrets  of  evangelistic 
success  from  a  man  who  in  himself  combined 
many  of  the  excellences  of  Fenelon  and 
Massiilon,   Loyola  and  Luther? 


WHITEFIELD.  \  jy 

First,  he  studied  the  proper  use  of  his  voice. 
Like  his  Lord  before  him,  "  he  opened  his 
mouth  and  taught  them."  He  spoke  with 
loud  and  clear  tones,  with  perfect  articulation 
and  enunciation.  His  voice  was  a  great  gift, 
but  his  management  of  it  made  it  the  per- 
fection of  the  faculty  of  human  speech.  It 
had  wonderful  richness  and  sweetness;  but 
behind  its  musical  modulations  and  persuasive 
pathos  there  lay  deep  feeling.  It  was  the 
man,  back  of  the  voice,  that  so  warmed 
the  cold,  calculating  Franklin  and  charmed 
the  philosophical,  sceptical  Hume. 

The  human  voice  is  the  grandest  of  in- 
struments, and  all  others  are  sonorous  and 
melodious  only  as  they  approximate  to  its 
perfection.  He  discovered  and  developed 
its  powers ;  he  learned  to  handle,  and  play 
on,  that  consummate  instrument.  Garrick 
said  he  would  give  a  hundred  guineas  to  say 
'•  Oh  !  "  as  Whitefield  did  ;  and  that,  by 
merely  varying  his  pronunciation  of  the 
word,  "  Mesopotamia,"  he  could  make  an 
audience  tremble   or  weep.     But  no  natural 


■178  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

volume  or  compass  of  voice  could  have  ena- 
bled him  to  reach  thirty  thousand  hearers, 
without  the  mastery  of  enunciation.  It  was 
because  he  articulated  every  syllable  clearly 
and  sharply  that  his  opening  words  on  Soci- 
ety Hill,  Philadelphia,  were  audible  two 
miles  off,  at  Gloucester  Point. 

If  his  oratory  betrayed  genius,  it  still  more 
revealed  industry.  He  trusted  to  no  native 
gifts ;  his  culture  of  his  powers  of  speech 
was  careful  and  constant.  If  nature  made 
his  voice  powerful,  practice  made  it  omnipo- 
tent, and  his  elocution  was  more  an  acquire- 
ment than  an  endowment.  Here  is  a  hint 
for  every  preacher.  Why  should  the  stage 
or  rostrum  usurp  oratorical  culture  ?  Why 
should  actor  or  orator  take  more  pains  to 
amuse  or  charm,  than  the  preacher  to  save? 

Whitefield  threw  life  into  his  speaking. 
Demosthenes  made  the  power  to  inove^  men, 
—  as  Mirabeau  did,  **  audace,"  —  the  prime 
requisite  of  eloquence.  Whitefield,  being 
moved    himself,    spoke    like    a    man    who    is 

1  YSvf\(ns. 


WHITEFIELD.  1 79 

dealing  with  eternal  issues.  There  was  not 
only  melody  in  his  voice,  but  harmony  in  his 
whole  elocution ;  his  whole  body,  mind,  and 
heart  entered  actively  into  his  oratory. 

Whitefield  studied  the  preparation  of  ser- 
mons. His  native  fluency  tempted  to  indo- 
lence, but  his  was  no  lazy  way  of  preaching. 
His  art  was  so  elaborate  that  it  was  con- 
cealed. Each  repetition  of  a  discourse,  even 
to  the  fortieth,  showed  constant  improvement 
in  matter  and  manner,  tones  and  action. 
Even  his  simplicity  was  studied.  His  aim 
was  to  reach  men ;  and,  like  others  who  have 
sought  to  touch  the  popular  heart,  he  used 
the  dialect  of  the  people  and  was  charged 
with  "  vulgarisms."  But  that  plain  speech 
brought  truth  home  to  some  whom  no  pol- 
ished diction  could  move.  While  some  mur- 
mured because  he  said  that  Jesus  would 
receive  "  even  the  Devil's  castaways,"  by  that 
very  statement  one  of  those  *'  castaways " 
had  been  drawn  to  Him.  To  a  courtly 
clergyman  who  complained  of  ill  success, 
Daniel   Burgess    quaintly   replied :     "  Thank 


l80  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

your  velvet  month  for  that!  too  fijie  to  7ise 
market  language  !  " 

Whitefield's  appeals  were  direct  and  pointed. 
He  did  not  preach  over,  or  before,  or  around, 
but  to,  his  hearers.  It  was  no  poHshed  ora- 
tion, labored  essay,  or  empty  declamation, 
but  a  sermon,  —  a  speech  to  men,  —  that  dealt 
a  blow  at  the  individual  man  and  lodged  a  dart 
in  the  individual  conscience.  John  Fawcett, 
under  the  scaffold  at  Bristol  Amphitheatre, 
found  the  preacher  dissecting  his  soul,  as 
*'  though  he  had  known  his  thoughts  from 
ten  years  old."  But  tenderness  qualified  his 
directness;  and  the  mingling  of  truth  with 
love  subdued  even  coarse  and  brutal  natures. 

Whitefield  studied  illustration,  and  turned 
even  the  incidents  of  the  day  to  use.  By  the 
furnace  fires  at  Shields,  which  secured  to  the 
glass  its  crystalline  purity  and  transparency, 
he  illustrated  the  uses  of  adversity.  He  made 
the  storm  at  sea  such  a  vivid  reality  to  the 
New  York  seamen  that  they  saw  the  ship 
sinking,  and  shouted,  '*  Take  to  the  long 
boat !  "     He  so  enchanted  Chesterfield  when 


WHITEFIELD.  I  8  I 

describing  a  blind  beggar  stumbling  over  the 
edge  of  a  precipice,  that  he  cried  out,  "  Good 
God  !  he  is  gone  !  "  as  he  jumped  forward  to 
save  him.  He  could  build  into  the  structure 
of  his  discourse  the  occurrences  of  the  mo- 
ment. The  shadows  flitting  across  the  floor 
become  emblems  of  human  life;  the  light- 
ning and  thunder  of  the  gathering  storm,  the 
glance  of  the  eye  and  the  sound  of  the  voice 
of  God ;  then  the  bow  on  the  retiring  cloud 
represents  the  grace  that  paints  even  wrath 
with  hues  of  promise. 

He  even  dared  the  boldest  personifica- 
tion. Cold  abstractions  were  quickened  into 
concrete  realities.  Gethsemane,  Golgotha, 
Tabor,  became  living  scenes ;  and  on  one 
occasion  he  besought  Gabriel  to  **  stop !  " 
that  he  might  "  yet  bear  to  heaven  news  of 
one  sinner  reconciled  to  God  "  !  No  wonder 
the  fiddler  and  trumpeter  that  went  to  annoy 
him  found  their  instruments  struck  dumb, 
and  that  Tuppen,  who  meant  to  stone  him, 
lost  his  own  stony  heart;  or  that  Franklin, 
under  his  charity  sermon,  gradually  won  by  his 


1 82  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

appeals,  first  determined  to  give  his  coppers, 
then  his  silver,  then  his  gold,  and  ended  by- 
emptying  his  pockets  into  the  hat !  The  boy 
Rodgers  let  fall  his  lantern ;  the  planter 
could  not  find  time  to  "  plant  a  sprig,"  nor 
the  ship-builder  to  lay  a  plank.  He  riveted 
all  eyes  and  ears. 

This  great  evangelist  illustrates  what  There- 
min suggests,  that  eloquence  is  a  virtue.  His 
power  lay  deeper  than  any  gifts  of  voice, 
graces  of  gesture,  or  vividness  of  imagery.  It 
was  the  play  of  moral  and  spiritual  forces. 
The  whole  man  spoke.  His  passion's  secret 
lay  in  earnestness.  Life  slumbers  under  winter 
snows,  but  bursts  into  bloom  under  summer 
sunshine.  VVhitefield  himself  said  that  hear- 
ing Tennent  preach  showed  him  more  and 
more  that  no  one  can  preach  further  than 
he  has  experienced.  **  Like  people,  like 
priest."  A  man  will  not  make  others  feel 
what  he  does  not.  "  I  am  persuaded,"  said 
he,  '*  that  the  generality  of  preachers  talk  of 
an  unknown  and  unfelt  Christ.  Many  con- 
gregations  are  dead    because  dead   men  are 


WHITEFIELD.  1 83 

preaching  to  them.  Betterton,  the  actor, 
said  that  the  players  would  empty  the  play- 
house if  they  spake  like  the  preachers ;  and 
told  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London  that  while 
actors  speak  of  things  imaginary  as  though 
real,  the  preachers  too  often  speak  of  things 
real  as  though  imaginary."  ^ 

His  preaching  was  thoroughly  Evangelical. 
His  thousands  of  sermons  were  variations 
on  two  key-notes:  man  is  a  sinner,  but  may 
be  forgiven;  man  is  immortal,  and  will  in- 
herit heaven  or  hell.  It  seemed  like  a  new 
religion;  but,  as  John  Bacon  said,  it  was  only 
the  old  revived  and  treated  as  though  the 
preacher  meant  every  word  he  said. 

His  fondness  for  his  work  made  his  labor 
a  relief  and  rest  He  never  spared  himself; 
and  when  failing  health  compelled  him  to 
put  himself  on  short  allowance,  he  preached 
only  once  a  day  and  thrice  on  Sunday.  He 
counted  not  his  life  dear  unto  himself,  and 
left  a  maxim  worthy  of  Saint  Paul :  ''  We  are 
immortal  till  our  work  is  done." 

1  vSee  page  75,  note. 


84  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

HOWARD,   THE   PRISON   EVANGELIST. 


URKE  has  characterized  Howard's 
work  as  "  a  circumnavigation  of 
charity." 

He  visited  all  Europe,  not  to  gratify  an 
appetite  for  novelty,  not  to  satisfy  a  refined 
and  aesthetic  taste,  not  to  survey  sumptuous 
products  of  architecture  and  art,  not  to  make 
money,  or  to  get  health,  or  to  cultivate  elect 
friendships.  His  was  the  genius  of  humanity. 
He  went  to  descend  into  deep  dungeons,  to 
dare  the  contagion  and  infection  of  laza- 
rettos ;  to  explore  the  vastness  and  to  sound 
the  deepness  of  human  poverty  and  misery, 
want  and  woe ;  to  visit  the  sick  and  the 
prisoner  in  dark  cells  and  gloomy  hospitals 
and  pour  in  the  light  of  sympathy,  and  to 
tender  the  ministry  of  an  angel. 


HOWARD.  J  85 

Such  a  man  may  well  be  selected  as  the 
second  example  of  evangelistic  work  in 
practice,  and  with  the  more  propriety  as  we 
design  to  show  that  some  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous examples  of  evangelism  are  from 
the  ranks  of  the  laity. 

Howard  has  been  called  the  philanthropist 
of  prison  reform ;  he  was  more  than  this, 
he  was  the  prison  evangelist ;  for  his  ultimate 
aim  was  not  simply  to  relieve  bodily  distress 
and  temporal  want,  but  to  carry  the  gospel 
of  light  and  love  and  life  to  those  who 
would  in  no  other  way  be  reached ;  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  those  who  were  sick  and  in 
prison,  and,  in  ministering  to  them,  minister 
to  Christ. 

He  was  born — according  to  the  inscrip- 
tion of  the  statue  in  St.  Paul's  —  in  Hack- 
ney, Sept.  2,  1726.  He  inherited  none 
of  the  benevolence  which  he  displayed,  if 
tradition  rightly  ascribes  to  his  father  the 
penurious  habits  of  a  miser.  He  was  of  a 
frail  body,  and  had  only  a  fair  education; 
at  school  was  rather  slow  to  learn,  and  never 


I  86  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

showed  either  briUiance  or  acuteness.  But 
even  as  a  boy  his  frankness,  conscientious- 
ness, and  sterhng  moral  quahties  drew  to 
him  Richard  Price,  the  foremost  scholar  of 
the  school,  who  became  his  life-long  friend 
and  aided  him  in  his  reports  on  prisons.  So 
defective  was  Howard's  intellectual  training 
that  he  never  learned  to  compose,  even  in 
English,  with  grace  and  accuracy,  and  his 
private  correspondence  was  marred  by  mis- 
takes even  in  grammar  and  in  spelling. 

His  father's  death,  when  he  was  about 
sixteen,  left  him  the  heir  of  an  estate  and 
a  moderate  fortune  of  perhaps  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars  in  money,  which  he  was 
to  receive  in  full  in  his  twenty-fourth  year. 
Soon  after  he  thus  became  his  own  master, 
he  took  a  tour  on  the  Continent;  and  on  his 
return  suffered  for  years  from  ill-health. 
While  a  lodger  in  the  house  of  an  invalid 
widow  lady,  Mrs.  Loidore,  he  was  very  sick ; 
and  her  considerate  nursing  so  won  his  heart 
that  he  married  her,  in  his  twenty- fifth  year, 
though  she  was  more  than   twice  as   old  as 


HOWARD.  187 

himself.     It  was  an  act  of  grateful  recognition 
of  her  service  to  him  in  his  need. 

After  a  happy  married  life  of  two  or  three 
years,  her  death  left  him  a  second  time  free 
of  all  home  ties ;  and  again  he  went  on  a 
tour  of  travel,  in  this  instance  in  the  direction 
of  Portugal,  where  the  terrible  earthquake  of 
Lisbon,  in  1755,  had  left  untold  sorrow  and 
suffering  behind  it. 

What  strange  ways  God  takes  to  train  his 
workmen  for  their  work  and  sphere !  This 
voyage  providentially  shaped  Howard's  future 
career.  A  French  privateer  captured  the 
vessel  in  which  he  sailed,  and  he  was  taken 
prisoner  with  the  rest,  and  cast  into  a  filthy 
dungeon  at  Brest,  where  for  a  week  the  cap- 
tives almost  starved.  Then  he  was  removed 
first  to  Morlaix,  and  afterwards  to  Carpaix, 
where,  though  he  was  treated  with  more 
humanity,  he  was  still  a  prisoner  and  subject 
to  many  privations  and  vexations.  He  him- 
self confesses  that  it  was  what  he  underwent 
during  this  experience  that  drew  out  his 
sympathies   toward   the   unhappy  inmates  of 


1 88  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

similar  jails.  Upon  his  release,  he  made  a 
prompt  and  successful  effort  to  secure  relief 
for  his  fellow-prisoners,  and  then  retired  to 
his  estate  at  Cardington. 

There  he  set  himself  to  improve  the  con- 
dition of  his  tenants;  and  in  1758  married 
his  second  wife,  who  became  a  true  yoke- 
fellow in  all  his  efforts  to  make  the  cottages 
at  Cardington  models  of  beauty  and  home 
comfort.  He  began  by  improving  the  phy- 
sical and  material  condition  of  his  tenantry ; 
he  sought  to  make  their  homes  cleanly  and 
healthy,  well-watered,  lighted,  and  drained; 
then  to  stimulate  their  intellectual  life;  but  all 
was  only  on  the  way  to  their  moral  and  spirit- 
ual elevation.  He  was  a  kind  of  patriarch, 
using  his  authority  to  enforce  industry,  sobri- 
ety, and  morality,  and  to  promote  public 
worship.  He  aimed  at  nothing  short  of  an 
ideal  community. 

In  1765  his  second  wife  died,  shortly  after 
having  borne  him  a  son.  His  melancholy 
bereavement  drove  him  from  home.  After 
visiting    Genoa,    Pisa,    Florence,   Rome,   and 


HOWARD.  189 

Naples,  he  again  returned  to  Cardington.  In 
1773  he  was  made  high  sheriff  of  Bedford, 
and  these  official  duties  brought  him  once 
more  into  the  interior  of  prisons,  though  in 
a  new  capacity;  there  he  found  proofs  of 
unjust  imprisonment,  and  saw  calamities  and 
distresses  that  he  yearned  to  relieve,  and 
determined  if  possible  to  remove. 

About  the  close  of  1773,  now  forty-seven 
years  old,  he  set  out,  at  his  own  costs,  upon 
his  tour  of  prison  inspection.  Fifty  years 
before,  the  Marshalsea,  which  Dickens  has 
described  in  ''  Little  Dorrit,"  held  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  prisoners,  in  a  wretched  con- 
dition :  at  night,  in  wards  not  sixteen  feet 
square,  fifty  persons  were  sometimes  locked 
up,  half  in  hammocks,  and  the  other  half  on 
the  floor,  almost  stifled,  and  sometimes  actu- 
ally dying  for  want  of  fresh  air.  Yet  even 
this  does  not  equal  what  Howard  found  and 
describes.  In  cells  scarce  large  enough  for 
one  person,  close  and  dark,  he  found  three 
persons  confined  for  the  night,  with  a  few 
wisps  of  straw  on  a  damp  floor  as  their  only 


190  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

bed ;  the  infirmary  for  the  sick  consisted  of 
but  a  single  room.  He  reported  the  results 
of  his  observation  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  secured  the  passage  of  two  bills  which 
essentially  reformed  prison  discipline,  and 
which  at  his  own  expense  he  had  printed 
and  posted  to  every  jailer  and  warder  in  the 
kingdom.  Then  he  visited  the  jails  of  Lon- 
don and  Wales,  to  see  if  the  provisions  of 
these  bills  had  been  enforced ;  and  carried 
his  investigations  into  houses  of  correction 
and  city  and  town  jails.  He  found  jail  fever 
and  loathsome  small-pox  destroying  multi- 
tudes, not  only  of  felons,  but  of  unfortunate 
debtors  whom  the  unjust  legislation  of  those 
days  classed  with  criminals. 

He  was  prevailed  upon  to  accept  a  nomi- 
nation for  the  House  of  Commons ;  but  God 
had  better  work  for  him  to  do,  and  he  was 
defeated.  He  visited  the  Scotch  and  Irish 
prisons,  and  found  the  latter  in  a  worse  state 
than  any  in  England.  Then  he  carried  his 
researches  into  France,  Flanders,  Holland, 
and  Germany,  where  he  rejoiced  in  a  much 


HOWARD. 


91 


improved  condition  of  things.  Like  Shaftes- 
bury in  later  times,  he  was  satisfied  with  no 
information  at  second  hand.  Fearless  of  dan- 
ger and  forgetful  of  self,  he  penetrated  to  the 
very  depths  of  every  prison  to  which  he 
could  get  access,  and  testified  of  what  his 
own  eyes  had  seen  and  his  own  senses 
perceived.  He  would  wait  to  see  convicts' 
messes  weighed  out,  and  then  pocket  a  piece 
of  the  green  and  mouldy  biscuit  given  to 
them,  as  a  substantial  evidence  against  the 
captain  of  a  convict  hulk. 

Another  survey  of  English  prisons  after 
his  return  showed  some  improvement  in  their 
management;  but  in  Cornwall,  for  instance, 
he  found  a  prisoner  whose  door  had  not  been 
opened  for  four  weeks,  and  whose  cell  was 
lined  with  filth.  In  1776  he  went  to  the 
Swiss  jails,  as  well  as  those  of  England  and 
Wales,  and  the  next  year  published  his  book 
on  the  ''  State  of  Prisons,"  etc.  That  book, 
which  showed  what  an  astonishing  mass  of 
important  and  valuable  matter  one  man  may 
collect,  and  what  heroic  exposure  one  may 


192  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

dare  for  the  sake  of  humanity,  lifted  Howard 
to  the  rank  of  a  leading  philanthropist. 

What  John  Howard  endured  in  this  circum- 
navigation of  charity  no  one  can  imagine. 
He  breathed  and  lived  in  an  atmosphere  so 
foul  that  he  could  not  take  passage  in  a  post- 
chaise,  but  had  to  ride  on  horseback,  because 
the  exhalations  from  his  clothes  were  so 
offensive  to  fellow-travellers,  even  the  leaves 
of  his  memorandum-book  being  so  tainted 
that  they  had  to  be  spread  out  for  hours 
before  using.  He  went  into  cells  and  felons' 
wards  where  even  jailers  would  not  go  with 
him ;  where  were  damp  floors,  covered  per- 
haps with  water  an  inch  or  two  deep,  and 
the  straw  or  bedding  was  laid  on  the  floors ; 
where  there  were  neither  sewers  nor  vaults ; 
and  where,  lest  the  jailers  should  have  to  pay 
window-tax,  they  stopped  even  these  small 
apertures !  '*  Temperance  and  cleanliness  were 
his  only  preservatives ;  but  trusting  in  divine 
Providence,  and  believing  himself  in  the  way 
of  duty,  he  visited  the  most  noxious  cells  and 
dungeons,    fearing   no    evil."      He   averaged 


HOWARD.  193 

forty  miles  a  day  in  his  travelling  tours,  and 
lived  on  the  plainest  diet,  abjuring  both 
animal  food  and  all  alcoholic  drinks. 

In  1778  he  went  to  Holland,  Flanders, 
Germany,  Italy,  Switzerland,  France,  devot- 
ing a  fortune  of  forty-five  thousand  dollars, 
left  him  by  his  sister,  to  the  further  prose- 
cution of  his  work.  At  Prague  he  found  the 
monastery  of  Capuchin  friars  a  place  of  riot 
and  revelry,  and  brought  them  to  promises 
of  amendment  by  threatening  them  with 
summary  exposure.  After  a  further  tour  of 
forty-six  hundred  miles  on  the  Continent, 
and  nearly  seven  thousand  miles  of  travel  in 
Great  Britain,  in  1780  he  published  an  appen- 
dix to  his  book,  and  in  178 1  went  to  the 
Continent,  to  carry  on  further  investigation. 

In  Russia  he  learned  from  the  man  who 
inflicted  the  punishment  of  the  knout,  that 
he  sometimes  received  orders  to  do  it  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  secure  the  death  of  the 
victim,  which  he  did  by  a  few  well-directed 
strokes  on  the  sides,  which  would  tear  away 
huge  masses  of  flesh. 
13 


194  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

In  1784,  after  publishing  a  third  edition  of 
his  work,  he  retired  to  Cardington.  He  was 
now  nearly  sixty  years  old,  and  the  time  of 
rest  seemed  to  have  come.  But  of  late  the 
question  of  infectious  disease  in  prisons  had 
so  occupied  him  that  he  determined  to  give 
the  last  years  of  his  life  to  fight  that  terrible 
pestilence  then  known  as  *'  The  Plague." 
Nothing  but  personal  experience  would  suf- 
fice. He  set  sail  in  an  infected  ship,  and 
underwent  confinement  in  the  lazaretto,  that 
every  custom  of  quarantine  might  be  per- 
sonally tested  by  himself,  probably  intending 
to  build  a  lazaretto  himself  on  the  most  im- 
proved sanitary  principles.  He  inspected, 
with  great  risk,  the  lazaretto  at  Marseilles ; 
then,  at  Toulon,  the  arsenal  and  the  galleys ; 
then  went  to  Italy,  Malta,  Smyrna,  and  the 
Golden  Horn ;  then  to  Venice,  closely  exam- 
ining the  hospitals,  actually  undergoing  quar- 
antine in  the  Venetian  lazaretto,  and  with  his 
own  hand  whitewashing  his  room,  to  prove 
the  beneficial  results  of  such  treatment  of 
the  apartments. 


HOWARD. 


9S 


It  was  while  at  Venice  that  he  heard  of  a 
scheme  to  erect  in  his  honor  a  statue  in 
London.  His  remonstrance  was  so  prompt 
and  vigorous  that  the  project  was  laid  aside. 
He  had  already  recorded  his  desire  that  over 
his  dust  only  a  plain  marble  slab  should  be 
raised,  with  his  name  and  age,  and  the  motto: 
**  My  hope  is  in  Christ."  Nothing  could  be 
more  distasteful  to  him  than  any  such  public 
recognition  of  his  unselfish  labors.  He  w^as 
not  living  for  human  honors  or  rewards. 

In  1789  he  left  England  never  to  return. 
At  the  village  of  Cherson  on  the  Dnieper, 
near  the  Crimea,  he  visited  a  young  lady  * 
sick  with  malignant  fever,  and  caught  the 
fatal  infection;  and  early  in  January,  1790, 
he  departed  this  life,  in  the  sixty-fourth  year 
of  his  age;  as  Jeremy  Bentham  says,  "dying 
a  martyr,  after  living  an  apostle." 

Such  is  the  simple  story  of  a  life  that  led 
all  others  in  prison  evangelism,  toiling  per- 
sonally to  turn  prisons  and  jails,  hospitals 
and  lazarettos,  into  places  of  comfort  and 
healing,  and  to  turn  the  prisoners  and  victims 


196  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

of  disease  in  them  from  evil  to  good.  What 
a  preaching  of  Christ  was  that !  The  impulse 
to  such  evangelism  can  only  be  derived  from 
Him  who  left  the  throne  of  glory  and  the 
palace  among  the  stars,  to  enter  personally 
the  stable  at  Bethlehem,  and  to  be  called  the 
Nazarene ;  to  identify  himself  with  the  aban- 
doned and  the  outcast,  feed  the  hungry,  heal 
the  leper  with  his  touch,  lift  up  the  fallen,  ac- 
cept a  cross  of  shame  between  two  thieves,  and 
go  into  the  very  sepulchre,  that  he  might  make 
the  darkness  of  the  tomb  forever  light  to 
those  who  should  follow  him  into  the  grave. 
John  Howard  went  everywhere  to  publish 

THE   PROGRAMME    OF    THE    KINGDOM. 

"THE    SITRIT   OF   THE    LORD    GOD    IS 
UPON    ME. 

Because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me 
to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  meek; 

He    HATH    SENT    ME 

to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 

to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives, 

And  the  opening  of  the  prison 

To   them   that   ARE    BOUND. 
To    proclaim   the   ACCEPTABLE   YEAR   OF   THE    L0RD."1 

1  Isa.  ]xi.  I,  2. 


FINNEY.  197 


CHAPTER   XV. 


FINNEY,    THE   REVIVAL   EVANGELIST. 


HARLES  GRANDISON  FINNEY 
seems  to  have  been  raised  up,  at 
a  peculiar  juncture  in  the  churches 


of  this  land,  to  introduce  a  new  era  of  revi- 
vals of  religion.  The  prevalent  condition 
was  one  of  "dead  orthodoxy,"  —  soundness 
of  faith  with  little  of  the  salt  of  godliness, 
and  still  less  of  vital  spiritual  power. 

The  antidote  to  stagnation  is  agitation, 
and  to  effect  this,  extraordinary  means 
are  often  required.  *'  When  the  tale  of 
bricks  is  doubled,  then  comes  Moses."  Mr. 
Finney  was  a  born  reformer,  impassioned 
to  the  borders  of  impetuosity,  positive  to 
the  borders  of  bigotry,  and  original  to  the 
borders  of  heresy.  With  a  scourge  of  sting- 
ing   cords,    he    lashed    the    hypercalvinistic 


1 98  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

fatalism  and  cold  pietism  of  the  churches, 
and,  by  the  very  antagonism  which  he  awak- 
ened, stirred  to  their  depths  the  stagnant 
waters. 

Born  at  Warren,  Connecticut,  in  1792,  up 
to  his  twenty-fifth  year  he  had  no  real  relig- 
ious training.  The  region  in  the  State  of 
New  York  to  which  his  family  moved  was  a 
virtual  wilderness.  He  picked  up  a  common 
education  and  even  a  little  knowledge  of 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew;  but,  though  always 
a  learner,  he  never  was  a  scholar. 

In  18 18  he  entered  a  law-office  in  Adams, 
Jefferson  County,  New  York.  Hitherto 
what  little  he  had  known  of  the  gospel 
was  mostly  repelling:  the  preaching  he  had 
heard  was  monotonous,  mechanical,  and  half 
fatalistic ;  and  he  was  practically  as  ignorant 
as  a  heathen.  The  frequent  references  to 
the  Mosaic  Code  which  he  met  in  legal 
studies  led  him  to  buy  a  Bible ;  and  his 
casual  glances  into  the  **  perfect  law  of 
liberty,"  like  a  passing  glimpse  of  his  face 
in    a    mirror,    showed   him  what   manner    of 


FIAWEY.  199 

man    he  was,    and     made    him    restless    and 
troubled  in  conscience. 

Occasional  attendance  at  preaching  ser- 
vices and  prayer-meetings  impressed  him  with 
the  lack  of  plain  and  practical  presentations 
of  truth,  and  of  faith  in  the  answers  promised 
to  prayer.  If  the  Bible  be  true,  all  men  are 
lost  sinners,  and  ought  to  be  told,  in  a  way 
too  clear  to  be  misunderstood,  their  condi- 
tion and  the  way  of  salvation.  If  the  Bible 
be  trustworthy,  those  who  pray  to  God  ought 
to  believe  Him  and  trust  His  word.  These 
early  impressions,  made  on  him  before  con- 
version, gave  direction  to  the  whole  current 
of  his  after-life. 

The  practical  lack  of  faith  in  prayer  on 
the  part  of  professed  children  of  God  was  a 
stumbling-block  over  which  he  well  nigh  fell 
into  scepticism.  When  asked  at  a  w^eekly 
meeting  in  Adams  if  he  would  like  to  be 
prayed  for,  he  frankly  said  he  could  not  see, 
according  to  their  own  confession,  that  God 
heard  their  prayers.  But  further  reading  of 
the  Bible  revealed  the  reason :   they  did  not 


200  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

look  for  answers,  —  unbelief;  and  they  did  not 
meet  the  scriptural  conditions,  —  elisobedience. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  Mr.  Finney  was 
compelled  to  face  the  question  of  the  per- 
sonal acceptance  of  Christ  as  a  Saviour. 
Pride  led  him  to  hide  the  concern  about  his 
soul,  which  would  not  let  him  rest.  He 
vainly  tried  to  pray,  but  his  convictions  grew 
clearer  and  heavier,  and  the  way  of  salvation 
plainer  and  straighten  So  strong  was  the 
Spirit's  striving  with  him  that  it  was  like  a 
hand-to-hand  struggle  :  the  question  seemed 
put  to  him  directly,  "Will  you  accept  now  — 
to-day?"  And  he  replied,  "  I  will,  or  die  in 
the  attempt."  He  went  up  into  the  woods, 
determined  to  give  his  heart  to  God  before 
he  ever  cam.e  down  again.  And  he  did.  His 
sin  was  a  crushing  weight,  but  he  laid  hold 
of  the  promise,^  "Ye  shall  seek  Me,  and  find 
Me,  when  ye  shall  search  for  Me  with  all 
your  heart."  With  a  faith  that  from  the  first 
was  very  childlike,  he  cried  :  "  Lord,  Thou 
canst  not  lie ;  I  take  Thee  at  Thy  word  ;   I  do 

^  Jer.  xxix.  13. 


FINNEY.  201 

search  with  all  my  heart,  and  I  know  there- 
fore that  I  have  found  Thee." 

Then  he  continued  in  prayer  till  peace 
flooded  his  soul.  He  did  not  know  that  this 
was  conversion;  and  his  peace  begat  new 
anxiety  lest  he  had  grieved  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  had  lost  conviction  and  concern  because 
he  had  lost  the  Divine  moving  within.  But 
he  said  to  himself,  **  If  ever  I  am  converted, 
I  will  preach  the  gospel." 

In  the  evening  he  went  to  his  office. 
There  was  in  the  room  neither  fire  nor  light, 
yet  it  seemed  to  him  he  was  in  a  flood  of 
glory,  face  to  face  with  Christ,  whose  look 
broke  him  down  in  tears  of  strange  joy.  He 
wept  aloud,  confessing  sin  and  praising  God, 
unconscious  of  the  lapse  of  time,  enrapt  as 
in  a  trance.  He  received  then  and  there  a 
baptism  of  the  Spirit,  that  went  through  him 
body  and  soul,  like  an  electric  wave.  Love 
flooded  his  whole  being,  till  he  cried  out, 
"  Lord,  I  can  bear  no  more."  Whatever 
may  be  the  human  philosophy  of  such  an 
experience,  he  from    his   death-hour  looked 


202  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

back  to  it  as  the  most  remarkable  experience 
of  his  Hfe. 

From  that  day  Charles  G.  Finney  was 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  had  been 
taught  by  experience,  before  he  had  been  ^ 
taught  by  theory,  justification  by  faith  as  the 
secret  of  peace  with  God,  and  entire  self- 
surrender  as  the  secret  of  the  peace  of  God. 
He  had  been  both  accepted  in  the  Beloved 
and  anointed  for  service.  He  declared  at 
once  and  at  all  times  that  he  was  the  Lord's. 
He  felt  that  he  must  preach,  and  was  not 
only  willing  to  do  so,  but  unwilling  to  do  any- 
thing else ;  and  as  preaching  meant  to  him 
no  formal  pulpit  oratory,  but  direct  dealing 
with  souls,  he  began  at  once,  and  his  words 
to  individuals  were  like  barbed  arrows  that 
could   not  be  withdrawn. 

Mr.  Finney  was  a  marked  proof  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  can  instantly  make  a  man  a 
new  creation,  in  whom  old  things  pass  away, 
and  all  things  become  new;  and  can  as  in- 
stantly qualify  for  the  work  of  winning  souls. 
In  a  moment  the  world   had   lost   hold,  and 


FINNEY.  203 

God  had  taken  hold ;  and  going  forth  at 
once  to  save  others,  he  met  doubters,  scep- 
tics, cavillers,  and  found,  given  him  at  the 
moment,  the  answer  which  shot  down  and 
shattered  all  their  defences  of  fallacy,  sophis- 
try, falsehood,  and  self-righteousness.  Almost 
every  one  he  spoke  to  was  converted ;  and 
sometimes,  without  a  spoken  word,  convert- 
ing power  came.  He  was  so  wrought  upon 
by  his  sense  of  the  lost  state  of  souls  about 
him,  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come, 
that  his  looks,  his  tears,  his  own  evident  emo- 
tion, his  very  presence,  moved  others. 

.  Of  course  such  a  sudden,  remarkable  con- 
version set  the  town  ablaze  with  excitement, 
and  the  people  instinctively  thronged  the 
prayer-meeting.  He  went  and  found  the 
place  packed  with  people,  and  pervaded  with 
an  awful  silence  of  God.  Unasked  and  un- 
prepared, he  rose,  and,  as  God  gave  him 
utterance,  told  somewhat  of  his  experience, 
and  spoke  of  the  reality  of  things  unseen. 
The  minister  followed  with  humble  confes- 
sion of  his  own  unbelief  and  inconsistency, 


204  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

and  acknowledged  that  he  had  been  a  stum- 
bling-block in  the  way  of  souls. 

Unconsciously  to  himself,  Mr.  Finney  had 
begun  his  career  as  a  revivalist.  Nightly 
meetings  followed  almost  without  arrange- 
ment or  announcement,  and  the  work  spread. 
He  worked  especially  among  the  young 
people  whose  leader  he  had  been,  and  but 
one  of  them  all  remained  unconverted.  He 
visited  his  parents  at  Henderson,  and  shortly 
they  found  Christ,  and  the  work  of  grace 
spread  there  also. 

Meanwhile,  filled  with  God,  he  scarcely  felt 
need  either  of  food  or  sleep.  His  visions  of 
God's  glory  were  like  the  days  of  heaven 
upon  earth,  but  he  was  strangely  restrained 
from  telling  others ;  and  he  specially  noticed 
that  whatever  turned  his  eyes  within,  and 
away  from  Jesus,  even  for  the  analysis  of 
his  motives  and  feelings,  robbed  him  both 
of  peace  and  power.  He  could  do  nothing 
while  any  obstacle,  or  even  cloud,  intervened 
between  him  and  God.  But,  while  fellow- 
ship   with    Him    was    unhindered,    he    pre- 


FINNEY.  205 

vailed  as   a  prince  both  with  God  and  with 

men. 

He  was  thus  also  taught,  experimentally, 
travail  for  souls,  its  nature  and  necessity. 
His  interest  for  others  would  not  allow  him 
to  rest,  until  prayer  brought  assurance  of 
answer. 

He  had  no  training  in  theology,  and  to 
many  his  views  of  Scripture  and  Christian 
doctri-ne  seem  erroneous.  But  Orthodoxy 
had  become  cold,  dead,  barren;  a  new 
method  of  presenting  truth  was  needed  to 
arouse  disciples  and  alarm  the  unsaved. 
God  permitted'  Mr.  Finney  perhaps  unduly 
to  emphasize  man's  freedom  and  responsi- 
bility because  these  truths  had  been  obscured 
and  obstructed  by  undue  stress  upon  man's 
inability  and  God's  sovereignty.  A  resort 
to  extremes  often  restores  balance.  Men 
must  be  taught  not  to  wait  on  God  in  list- 
less inaction  for  blessings  that  must  crown 
their  own  endeavor. 

In    1822   Mr.  Finney  was   received   under 
Presbyterial  care  as  a  candidate  for  the  min- 


206  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

istry.  He  did  not  enter  that  holy  ofifice, 
however,  through  college  or  seminary  doors. 
God  doubtless  saw  that  a  "system  of  theology  " 
might  fetter  his  original  force  and  cool  his 
ardor  and  fervor,  or  make  him  only  an  ex- 
ponent of  some  school  of  opinion ;  and  so 
He  sent  him  out  with  the  freshness  of  His 
anointing  upon  him,  an  illustration  and  proof 
of  what  Divine  tuition  can  do  for  a  man 
whose  only  teacher  is  the  Spirit,  and  whose 
one  book  is  the  Bible. 

He  had  no  desire  or  expectation  of  labor- 
ing among  cultured  city  congregations,  and, 
soon  after  being  licensed,  began  labors  as  a 
missionary  evangelist.  His  first  fields  were 
Evans'  Mills  and  Antwerp,  and  were  a  type 
of  his  life-work.  He  had  a  double  aim: 
first  to  arouse  the  Church,  lead  false  disciples 
to  give  up  their  delusive  hope,  and  idle 
disciples  to  take  up  work  for  Christ;  and 
secondly,  to  awaken  the  unsaved  to  feel  their 
lost  state  and  commit  themselves  at  once,  by 
some  signal  visible  act,  to  at  least  a  declared 
interest  in  their  own  salvation.     These  things 


FINNEY.  207 

should  be  made  emphatic,  for  they  are  what 
distinguish  Mr.  Finney  from  other  evan- 
gehsts.  In  various  towns  and  cities,  from 
Buffalo  and  Rochester  to  Troy,  Providence, 
and  Boston,  eastward,  and  New  York  City, 
Philadelphia,  and  Reading,  southward,  and 
even  in  England  and  Scotland,  he  left  the 
savor  of  his  mighty  influence. 

In  studying  such  a  man  of  mark,  we  are 
tempted  to  see  onl}-  those  bolder,  stronger 
features  which  are  like  mountains  in  a  land- 
scape, and  which  defy  imitation.  Nature 
does  sometimes  break  her  die  after  mould- 
ing a  great  man.  But  some  secrets  of  Mr. 
Finney's  power  are  communicable;  and,  as 
an  evangelist  and  winner  of  souls,  he  fur- 
nishes many  most  helpful  suggestions. 

He  came  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias, 
like  whom  he  shone  conspicuous  for  coura- 
geous cajidor,  bold  p7'eaching  of  tlie  law,  con- 
suming zeal  for  God,  and  power  in  prayer. 

His  candor  made  men  hear,  and  gave 
him  great  power  even  with  cavilling  scep- 
tics.      Men   instinctively    respect   truth,    and 


208  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

the  truthful  man  who  is  honest  and  bold, 
though  he  hits  hard  and  strikes  home ;  while 
they  as  instinctively  detect  and  detest  a 
pulpit  politician.  Mr.  Finney  scorned  traps 
of  logic  or  tricks  of  rhetoric,  and  had  no  aim 
but  to  deal  truly  and  faithfully  with  every 
hearer,  using  great  simplicity  in  language 
and  illustration. 

Trained  as  a  lawyer,  he  preached  law. 
He  showed  God's  right  to  command,  and 
the  rightness  of  His  commands ;  that  per- 
fect government  demands  perfect  law  and 
perfect  obedience,  and  rests  on  the  sanc- 
tions of  reward  and  penalty;  and  that  wrath 
against  sin  is  as  much  a  perfection  as  love 
toward  goodness.  Then  he  proved  all  men 
to  be  wilful  transgressors,  and  therefore  both 
without  excuse  and  without  hope,  save  as 
they  bow  to  His  will  to  be  saved  in  His  way. 
Such  preaching  wrought,  as  it  always  will, 
deep  conviction.  His  sermon  on  the  "Wages 
of  sin"  struck  like  a  thunderbolt. 

Then  after  this  ploughshare  of  law  had 
crashed  through  the  refuges  of  lies,  tearing 


FINNEY.  209 

up  by  the  roots  selfishness  and  self-right- 
eousness, with  gentle  hand  he  let  fall  in 
the  fresh  furrows  the  seed  steeped  in  his 
own  tears.  Often  for  one,  two,  three  hours 
he  would  in  one  mighty  plea  unfold  gospel 
truth,  first  by  strong  reasoning  grappling 
with  conviction,  then  by  awful  appeals 
arousing  conscience,  then  by  tearful  tender- 
ness persuading  the  heart  and  moving  the 
will  at  once  to  cJiOGse  Christ  and  say  so. 

He  flamed  with  zeal,  like  Elias  repairing 
the  broken  altar  of  the  Lord,  and  hewing 
in  pieces  the  false  prophets  of  Baal.  He 
attacked  with  heroic  bravery  all  formality 
and  hypocrisy,  unbelief  and  unfaithfulness, 
and  the  pretences  and  pretexts  behind  which 
sinners  hid  a  heart  full  of  hate  toward  God 
and  godliness. 

His  power  in  prayer  was  marvellous.  In 
1853,  after  a  long  drought,  he  so  wrestled 
with  God  for  rain,  that  while  he  prayed  a 
clear  burning  sky  of  brass  was  suddenly 
black  with  clouds,  and  before  the  service 
closed  floods  drowned  his  voice.  To  hear 
14 


2IO  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

him  pray  was  to  feel  that  you  yourself  had 
never  prayed.  Like  all  such  princes  of  God, 
he  lived  under  a  vivid  sense  of  the  powers  of 
the  world  to  come.  He  thoroughly  believed 
and  felt  the  reality  of  unseen  things,  and 
above  all  the  unseen  Spirit,  and  that  in  His 
anointing  lies  the  secret  of  all  true  service 
to  souls,  and  power  in  preaching.  He  pre- 
pared sermons,  but  most  of  all  he  prepared 
himself;  and  at  times  his  mightiest  messages 
were  messages  of  the  moment. 

Zoroaster's  followers  were  enjoined  to 
quench  their  fires  from  time  to  time,  and 
rekindle  them  from  coals  in  the  Temple  of 
the  Sun,  that  they  might  be  reminded  that 
fire  was  heaven's  sacred  gift.  Blessed  is  the 
man  who  daily  resorts  to  those  celestial 
altars  whence  only  come  the  coals  which 
set  our  lips  aflame ! 


CHALMERS.  2 1 1 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

CHALMERS,    THE    PARISH    EVANGELIST. 

HIS  name  is  especially  worthy  of  a 
permanent  record,  for  Chalmers 
was  one  of  the  men  who  have  led 
the  way  in  the  practical  solution  of  that 
great  problem  of  our  civilization :  "  How  to 
deal  with  the  masses  in  our  great  cities." 

At  his  sixty-fifth  year,  we  find  this  great- 
est of  Scotchmen  on  fire  with  all  his  youth- 
ful ardor,  in  this  mission  to  the  masses  in 
Edinburgh,  where,  as  in  Ephesus,  the  gold, 
silver,  and  precious  stones  of  the  sacred 
fanes  and  palaces  were  in  strong  contrast  to 
the  wood,  hay,  stubble,  of  the  huts  and 
hovels  of  the  poor.  With  sublime  devotion, 
Chalmers  at  this  advanced  age,  when  most 
men  retire  from  active  and  arduous  toil, 
entered  upon  the  most  difficult  experiment 


212  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

of  his  life,  that  he  might  demonstrate  by  a 
practical  example  what  can  be  done  for 
the  poor  and  neglected  districts  in  a  great 
metropolis. 

The  West  Port,  in  the  ''old  town"  of  Edin- 
burgh, was  the  home  of  a  population  whose 
condition  may  be  described  by  two  words, 
poverty  and  misery.  He  undertook  to  redeem 
this  heathen  district  by  the  gospel,  planting 
in  it  schools  and  a  church  for  the  people, 
and  organizing  Christian  disciples  into  a  band 
of  voluntary  visitors.  The  name  '*  territorial 
system "  was  attached  to  the  plan  as  he 
worked  it,  and  has  passed  into  history  under 
that  sonorous  title.  In  St.  John's  parish, 
Glasgow,  he  had  already  proved  the  power 
of  visitation  and  organization.  Within  his 
parochial  limits  he  found  2,i6i  families,  845 
of  them  without  any  seats  in  a  place  of  wor- 
ship. He  assigned  to  each  visitor  aboujt  fifty 
families.  Applications  for  relief  were  dealt 
with  systematically,  and  so  carefully,  yet 
thoroughly,  that  not  a  case  either  of  scanda- 
lous allowance  or  scandalous  neglect  was  ever 


CHALMERS.  2 1 3 

made  known  against  him  and  his  visitors. 
There  was  a  severe  scrutiny  to  find  out  the 
fact  and  the  causes  of  poverty,  to  remove 
necessary  want,  and  remedy  unnecessary 
want  by  removing  its  cause.  The  bureau  of 
intelhgence  made  imposture  and  trickery 
hopeless,  especially  on  a  second  attempt. 
And  poverty  was  not  only  relieved,  but  at  a 
cost  which  is  amazingly  small.  While  in  other 
parishes  of  Glasgow  it  averaged  two  hun- 
dred pounds  to  every  thousand  of  the  popu- 
lation, and  in  many  parishes  of  England  it 
averaged  a  pound  for  every  inhabitant ,  in  St. 
John's  it  was  but  thirty  pounds  for  a  thousand 
people. 

It  was  an  illustration  of  heroism  in  these 
latter  days,  when  a  man  past  threescore 
years,  whose  public  career,  both  with  his 
pen  and  tongue,  had  made  him  everywhere 
famous,  gave  up  his  latter  days  to  elevate 
the  physical,  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual 
condition  of  a  squalid  population  in  an 
obscure  part  of  the  Modern  Athens.  His 
theory  was  that    about   four   hundred   fami- 


214  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

lies  constituted  a  manageable  town  parish ; 
and  that  for  every  such  territorial  district 
there  ought  to  be  a  church  and  a  school, 
as  near  as  may  be,  free  to  all.  This  district 
in  West  Port  contained  about  this  number  of 
families,  which  were  subdivided  into  twenty 
"proportions,"  each  containing  some  twenty 
families. 

A  careful  census,  taken  by  visiting,  re- 
vealed that  of  41 1  families,  45  were  attached 
to  some  Protestant  Church,  70  were  Roman 
Catholics,  and  296  had  no  church  connec- 
tion. Out  of  a  gross  population  of  2,000, 
1,500  went  to  no  place  of  worship;  and  of 
41 1  children  of  school-age,  290  were  grow- 
ing up  entirely  in  ignorance.  It  is  a  curi- 
ous fact  that  these  411  families  averaged 
one  child  each  of  appropriate  age  for 
school,  and  that  of  these  41 1  children  there 
were  ab^out  as  many  growing  up  untaught 
as  there  were  families  without  church 
connection.  This  careful  compilation  of 
statistics  revealed  that  the  proportion  of 
ignorance  and  of  non-attendance    at    chnrch 


CHALMERS.  2 1  5 

correspond  almost  exactly ;  in  other  words, 
families  that  attend  a  place  of  worship 
commonly  send  children  to  school,  and  the 
reverse. 

Another  fact  unveiled  by  this  effort  at  city 
evangelization  was  that  about  one  fourth  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  territory  were  paupers, 
receiving  out- door  relief,  and  one  fourth  were 
habitual,  professional  beggars,  tramps,  thieves, 
and  riffraff. 

Here  was  a  field  indeed  for  an  experiment 
as  to  what  the  Church  could  do  in  her  mis- 
sion among  the  masses.  Chalmers  was  hun- 
gry for  such  an  opportunity;  it  stirred  all 
his  Scotch  blood.  So  he  set  his  visitors  at 
work.  But  he  did  not  himself  stand  aloof. 
Down  into  the  '*  wynds "  and  alleys  and 
**  closes  "  of  West  Port  he  went ;  he  presided 
at  their  meetings,  counselled  them  sympa- 
thetically, identified  himself  with  the  whole 
plan  in  its  formation  and  execution,  while 
his  own  contagious  enthusiasm  and  infec- 
tious energy  gave  stimulus  to  the  most  faint- 
hearted. 


2l6  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

He  loved  to  preach  to  these  people  not 
less  than  to  the  most  elegant  audiences  of 
the  capital,  or  the  elect  students  of  the  uni- 
versity. He  would  mount  into  a  loft  to  meet 
a  hundred  of  the  poorest,  as  gladly  as  ascend 
the  pulpit  of  the  most  fashionable  cathedral 
church  crowded  with  the  elite  of  the  world's 
metropolis.  And  those  ragged  boys  and 
girls  hung  on  his  words  with  characteristic 
admiration. 

Two  years  of  toil,  with  the  aid  of  Rev. 
W.  Tasker,  enabled  Dr.  Chalmers  to  open  a 
new  free  church  in  this  district.  The  Lord's 
Supper  was  administered ;  and  out  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty-two  communicants,  one 
hundred  were  trophies  of  the  work  done  by 
him  and  his  helpers  in  that  obscure  district. 
With  a  prophetic  forecast  Chalmers  saw  in 
this  success  the  presage  of  greater  possibili- 
ties, and  a  practical  solution  of  the  problem 
of  city  evangelization ;  and  hence  he  con- 
fessed it  was  the  joy  of  his  life  and  the 
answer  to  many  prayers. 

The   plan    pursued   by   Dr.    Chalmers  was 


CHALMERS.  2 1  7 

not  at   all   like  the  modern  evangelistic  ser- 
vices,—an  effort  spasmodic,  if  not  sporadic, 
—  preaching  for  a  few  weeks  in  some  church 
edifice  or  public  hall  or  tabernacle,  and  then 
passing   into  some  other  locality,   leaving  to 
others  to  gather  up  results    and  make  them 
permanent.     From   the    most    promising   be- 
ginnings of  this  sort,  how  often  have  we  been 
compelled  to  mourn   that  so   small   harvests 
have   been    ultimately   gleaned!     He   organ- 
ized  systematic  work  that   looked  to  lasting 
results.     The    ploughman   and    the  sower   of 
seed  bore  also  the  sickle  and  watched  for  the 
signs  of  harvest.     And  whenever  the  germs 
of  a  divine  life  appeared,  they  were  nurtured, 
cherished,  guarded,  and  converts  were  added 
to  the  church,  set  at  work,  kept  under  foster- 
ing care,  and   not   left  to  scatter,  wander  at 
will,  or  relapse  into  neglect. 

As  to  his  mode  of  dealing  with  pauperism, 
the  sagacious  Chalmers  saw  that,  while  a 
ministry  of  love  to  the  poor,  sick,  helpless, 
was  a  first  necessity,  it  would  be  unwise  and 
hurtful   to   their   best   interests   to  encoura^^e 


2l8  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

them  to  depend  on  charity.  The  church 
must  not  be  an  asylum  in  which  indolence 
and  incompetence  and  improvidence  should 
take  refuge.  The  poorest  must  be  educated 
to  maintain,  not  to  sacrifice,  self-respect,  and 
must  be  compelled  to  form  and  maintain 
habits  of  self-help,  industry,  economy,  thrift. 
Instead  of  clothing  the  poor  with  the  half- 
worn  garments  of  the  better  class,  he  would 
have  them  taught  to  save  money  worse  than 
wasted  on  tobacco,  drink,  and  vicious  indul- 
gence, and  buy  their  own  garments.  And 
the  results  of  this  wise  policy  were  seen  in 
the  gradual  and  rapid  improvement  in  the 
appearance  of  the  attendants  at  church:  rags 
gave  way  to  respectable  raiment,  and  it  was 
not  the  cast-off  clothing  of  their  betters, 
either. 

Chalmers  had  no  less  ambition  than  to 
ameliorate  d^ndi  finally  abolish  pauperism  ;  and 
his  success  in  St.  John's  parish,  Glasgow,  had 
proven  that  he  was  master  of  the  situation ; 
and  no  one  can  tell  what  results  might  have 
followed,  but   for  the  Poor  Law,  enacted  in 


CHALMERS. 


219 


1845,  which,  by  the  admission  of  a  statutory 
right  to  pubHc  rehef,  encourages  improvi- 
dence, weakens  family  ties  among  the  poor, 
conduces  to  a  morbid  satisfaction  with  a  state 
of  dependence,  and  thus  sows  the  seed  of  the 
very  pauperism  it  professes  to  relieve  and 
reduce. 

Nothing  in  Chalmers  was  more  a  secret  of 
success  than  the  utter  absence  of  the  caste 
spirit.  With  a  royal  mind  and  manners,  — 
a  king  among  men,  —  he  could  descend  to 
the  lowest,  with  sublime  unconsciousness  of 
condescension. 

The  Christian  missionary  makes  slow  prog- 
ress in  Africa,  because  he  can  offer  the  negro 
no  true  brotherhood  except  in  another  w^orld. 
But  the  Mohammedan  Moor  says  even  to  the 
most  degraded  Hottentot:  "Come  up  and  sit 
beside  me ;  give  me  your  daughter  and  take 
mine ;  all  who  pronounce  the  formula  of 
Islam  are  on  a  level  of  equality,  here  and 
hereafter."  ^ 

i  W.  S.  Blunt. 


220  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

SPURGEON,   THE    PASTORAL   EVANGELIST. 


ABAKKUK  was  bidden  to  write  upon 
the  wayside  tablets,  in  plain  large 
letters,  that  great  motto  which  be- 
came the  doctrinal  centre  of  Patd's  theology, 
and  the  historical  centre  of  the  great  Refor- 
mation :   "  The  just  shall  live  by  faith." 

Plain  preaching  of  gospel  truth  on  every 
occasion,  —  preaching  so  plain  that  the  mes- 
sage may  be  caught  even  at  a  cursory 
glance,  understood  by  the  feeblest  mind, 
and  retained  by  the  most  treacherous  mem- 
ory,—  that  is  the  inmost  secret  of  evangelistic 
success;  for  it 'not  only  evangelizes  every 
hearer,  but  it  makes  every  believer  an 
evangelist. 

Lord  Shaftesbury  said  of  Mr.  Spurgeon, 
that   his    great   secret   is   simply   and    solely 


SPURGEON.  221 

that  from  the  heart  he  preaches  Jesus  Christ 
and  Him  crucified;  and  trains  a  body  of 
men  who,  hke  himself,  get  at  the  hearts  of 
their  auditors.^  We  select  him  as  an  example 
of  evangelistic  work  done,  and  evangelistic 
power  wielded,  /;/  ordinary  pastoral  spheres ; 
and  as  a  proof  that  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ 
may,  without  going  outside  of  his  own  pulpit 
and  church,  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist 
and  make  full  proof  of  his  ministry. 

The  spacious  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  is 
built  for  the  aceommodation  of  the  multitudes, 
not  for  architectural  or  artistic  display. 
There  are  no  sittings  out  of  the  range  of 
the  preacher's  eye,  fit  only  for  the  blind, 
or  out  of  the  range  of  his  voice,  fit  only  for 
the  deaf;  there  are  no  echoes  to  dispute 
with  the  preacher  the  privilege  of  being 
heard.  Here  is  the  first  condition  of  suc- 
cess: Mr.  Spurgeon  has  a  building  in  which 
from  four  thousand  to  six  thousand  people 
can  be  gathered,  every  one  of  whom  can 
hear  every  word  he  says. 

^  Life  of  Shaftesbury,  iii.  397. 


222  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

The  entire  service  of  worship  exalts  God. 
The  short,  thick  man,  with  low  forehead, 
large  cheeks,  flat  nose,  and  capacious  mouth, 
is  not  in  appearance  such  a  man  as  is  chosen 
for  a  hero ;  he  becomes  good-looking,  how- 
ever, when  he  opens  his  mouth  boldly  to 
preach  the  gospel.  The  music,  led  by  a  pre- 
centor without  choir  or  instrument,  is  not 
elaborate  and  is  scarcely  "  modern,"  and  the 
vast  audience  does  not  always  keep  time ;  but 
there  is  a  great  volume  of  praise,  like  the 
sound  of  many  waters.  In  comparison  with 
that  singing,  now  and  then  interrupted  by  a 
comment  on  the  meaning  of  the  verses,  the 
most  silvery  song  from  an  operatic  quartette, 
and  the  swell  of  the  grandest  organ,  arc  only 
a  parody  on  worship. 

And  oh,  \\\\2X  praying,  peculiar  for  that  ele- 
ment of  adoration  in  which  nearly  all  public 
prayer  is  lacking !  His  confession  of  sin  is 
humble,  his  supplication  fervent,  his  interces- 
sion importunate ;  but  when  he  praises  and 
extols  God,  it  is  an  eagle  soaring  toward  the 
sun,  and  bearing  you  on  its  wings.     You  see 


SPURGEON.  223 

the  glory  of  God  ;  you  feel  smitten  with  the 
splendor  of  His  power  and  wisdom,  goodness 
and  holiness. 

The  reading  of  Scripture  is  interspersed 
with  brief,  pithy,  suggestive,  and  studied  com- 
ments, making  the  Word  of  God  plain  and 
practical,  and  preparing  the  soil  for  the  ser- 
mon. That  is  preaching  indeed.  The  text 
is  the  sermon  contracted ;  the  sermon  is  the 
text  expanded,  Christ  alone  is  lifted  up,  and 
He  draws  all  men  unto  Him.  The  people 
press  upon  him  to  hear  the  Word  of  God. 
Whatever  the  method  of  administration,  tJie 
impression  is  that  of  a  fi'ee  cJutrch,  and  that 
so  long  as  there  is  a  seat,  you,  whoever  you 
are,  are  as  welcome  to  it  as  the  highest 
princes  of  the   realm. 

No  doubt  Mr.  Spurgeon  is  a  man  of  un- 
common gifts.  But  his  genius  is  not  the 
source  of  his  success.  He  speaks  very  sim- 
ply, very  naturally,  very  earnestly,  and  ex- 
temporaneously. While  you  do  not  get  the 
idea  that  there  is  any  lackpf  pains  in  prepara- 
tion, you  have  before  you   no  pulpit  elocu- 


224  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

tionist,  or  even  orator,  but  simply  a  man 
who  has  something  to  say  to  you  from  God, 
and  who  says  it  as  well  as  he  can.  He  evi- 
dently bends  every  power  and  purpose  to 
the  one  end  of  bringing  sinners  to  Jesus,  and 
he  does  move  men.  Some  pulpit  Ciceros 
draw  forth  praise:  ''How  pleasantly  he 
speaks ! "  this  Demosthenes  compels  men 
to  say,  "  Let  us  go  to  Jesus." 

Mr.  Spurgeon  has  been  as  severely  criti- 
cised as  any  preacher  of  his  day.  But  if 
effectiveness  is  the  test,  he  is  the  greatest 
preacher  of  this  century.  The  chief  sur- 
geon of  France  boasted  to  Sir  Astley 
Cooper  that  he  had  performed  a  difficult 
feat  in  surgery  one  hundred  and  sixty  times; 
he  confessed  that  ''in  every  case  the  patient 
lost  his  life,  but  the  operation  was  very  bril- 
liant!' Mr.  Spurgeon  regards  no  sermon  as 
a  success  that  does  not  prove  effective  to 
save  and  to  sanctify. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  there  has  been 
a  constant  onward  movement  in  his  public 
career.      Dickens    remarked    that   "  comincj 


SPUR  GEO  AT.  225 

out"  is  easy,  but  it  is  a  matter  not  so  easy 
to  prevent  "  going  in  "  again.  At  seventeen 
years  of  age,  Charles  Spurgeon  was  the  boy- 
preacher  at  Waterbeach  ;  that  was  thirty-six 
years  ago.  He  went  to  the  world's  metropo- 
lis in  1853,  and  yet  he  still  preaches  to  as 
full  a  house,  and  with  as  much  energy  and 
enthusiasm,  as  ever. 

From  his  first  sermon,  he  has  shown  the 
spirit  of  an  evangelist.  He  assumes  that 
there  are  those  before  him  who  have  not 
heard  of  Christ,  and  he  speaks  as  if  their 
salvation  hung  on  his  lifting  up  Christ.  He 
looks  for  results,  and  he  has  them  regularly, 
constantly.  The  Lord  has  added  to  the 
church  daily  for  thirty-five  years.  The 
people  flock  to  hear  him  because  tJiey  get  a 
blessing.  They  can  hear  concert  singing  and 
eloquent  speaking  elsewhere ;  can  find  splen- 
did galleries  of  art,  and  see  theatre-acting, 
elsewhere  ;  but  where  else  can  they  hear  such 
praying,  praising,  preaching,  and  get  such 
lasting  blessing? 

What  frantic  efforts  are  made,  often,  to  get 
15 


226  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

an  audience !  What  resorts  to  advertising, 
worldly  expedients  and  attractions,  dramatic 
acting  and  often  clownish  trifling,  with  a 
necessity  for  constant  change  of  programme 
to  keep  up  the  excitement !  Here  is  a  young 
man  who  goes  to  London,  not  yet  twenty 
years  old,  begins  preaching  to  a  ''  handful " 
of  people  in  a  common  church  building. 
There  is  nothing  to  make  a  sensation;  but 
the  house  is  soon  full,  and  must  be  enlarged. 
During  the  enlargement  he  conducts  wor- 
ship at  Exeter  Hall,  and  for  three  months 
even  that  is  crowded.  The  congregation 
return  to  the  remodelled  church  edifice  only 
to  find  the  throngs  greater  than  ever,  and  a 
large  Tabernacle  is  planned.  Before  that  is 
erected,  the  monster  Music  Hall  in  Surrey 
Gardens  is  used  for  worship ;  and  for  three 
years  from  seven  thousand  to  ten  thousand 
souls  throng  that  great  assembly-room.  In 
1 86 1  the  new  Tabernacle  is  opened,  and 
from  the  first  it  is  full;  and  during  the  re- 
pairs to  that  building  in  1867,  Agricultural 
Hall  is   crowded  every  Sunday  morning  by 


SFURGEON.  227 

twenty  thousand  people  to  hear  that  same 
simple,  earnest  preacher. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Mr.  Spurgeon  has 
aimed  to  make  the  church  of  which  he  is 
pastor  a  centre  of  evangelizmg  influences. 
It  is  the  mother  of  churches,  missions,  Sun- 
day-schools, preaching  stations,  orphanages, 
almshouses,  —  every  conceivable  form  of 
gospel  effort  and  benevolent  work.  And  the 
church  is  not  exhausted  by  this  manifold 
activity;  for  all  this  Christian,  evangelistic, 
benevolent  work  reacts  upon  the  church  life : 
the  water  is  poured  on  the  widely  extended 
roots  of  the  tree,  but  is  returned  in  the  leaves, 
flowers,  and  fruit  which  grow  on  the  branches. 
Because  the  church  scatters,  it  increases. 

Even  this  is  not  all.  The  Pastor's  College 
has  been  training  thousands  of  young  men 
to  become  preachers  of  the  gospel;  and 
while  they  are  taught  to  preach,  they  are 
set  at  preaching.  The  work  is  one  of  faith 
and  prayer,  supported  by  voluntary  gifts; 
any  one,  however  ignorant  or  poor  or  lowly, 
who    shows   zeal   for    God    and    passion    for 


228  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

souls,  capacity  and  devotion  for  the  work, 
can  get  there  a  fit  education  for  preaching 
a  plain  gospel  in  a  plain  way.  And  every 
Sunday  students  or  graduates  from  this 
College  may  be  found  supplying  some  fifty 
to  one  hundred  chapels  in  the  metropolis 
and  its  suburbs.  In  addition  to  this  the  Col- 
portage  Society  employs  men  who  act  both 
as  salesmen  and  as  evangelists. 

Mr.  Spurgeon's  tongue  is  a  mighty  evan- 
gehzing  agency;  but  his  pen  and  the  press 
make  his  influence  even  mightier,  because 
they  extend  it  farther.  Regularly  reported 
by  a  short-hand  writer,  his  sermons,  cor- 
rected by  himself,  and  published  in  the 
cheapest  form,  are  given  to  the  public  in 
perhaps  twenty  different  languages  ;  their 
circulation  probably  falls  little  short  of  a 
million,  and  they  are  read  in  newspaper 
columns  by  hundreds  of  thousands  more; 
while  his  *'  Sword  and  Trowel "  and  his 
books  have  indefinitely  multiplied  his  ave- 
nues of  influence,  and  the  multitudes  into 
contact  with  whom  he  comes. 


SPURGEON. 


229 


It  may  be  doubted  whether  God  ever  gave 
to  his  people  an  example  more  encourag- 
ing to  the  ordinary  preacher  and  pastor. 
Here  are  evangelistic  work  and  evangelistic 
success,  both  on  a  colossal  scale,  yet  all 
within  the  circle  of  one  church  and  its  activ- 
ities, headed  and  led  by  a  thoroughly  Evan- 
gelical and  evangehstic  pastor.  He  is  a  man 
of  faith  and  prayer;  he  studies  the  Bible  as 
the  one  book,  and  preaches  Christ  and  noth- 
ing else;  he  scorns  all  mere  devices  of  logic 
and  rhetoric,  but  speaks  with  the  demonstra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  and  the  persuasive  power 
of  God.  He  expects  results  from  every  ser- 
mon and  service  of  worship ;  conducts  all  his 
church  enterprises  as  God's  work  rather  than 
his  own ;  refuses  all  invitations  to  lyceum 
lectures  and  platform  addresses,  committee 
meetings  and  social  festivals ;  invites  no  out- 
side help  from  evangelists,  and  holds  no 
"protracted  meetings;"  corrupts  the  sim- 
plicity of  church-buildings  by  no  devices  of 
elaborate  art,  and  the  simplicity  of  church 
worship  by  no  devices  of  worldly  attraction ; 


230  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

stays  at  home  and  attends  to  his  own  business ; 
and  yet  has  the  greatest  working  church  in 
the  world  to-day,  and  from  that  church  has 
sent  out  more  preachers  and  Christian  evan- 
geHsts  than  any  theological  seminary  within 
the  same  space  of  time! 

Any  church  may  be  an  evangelistic  centre, 
and  any  pastor  an  evangelistic  preacher,  if 
there  be  a  will.  Wesley's  quaint  motto, 
*'  All  at  it,  and  always  at  it,"  is  the  key  to 
the  problem.  The  preacher  must  lift  up 
Christ.  Let  us  not  be  afraid  of  the  repeti- 
tion which  Sydney  Smith  regarded  as  the 
secret  of  impression.  The  word  inculcation  is 
full  of  ethical  suggestion:  it  means  *'to  tread 
in  with  the  heel "  (/;/,  calx).  Men  never  tire 
of  hearing  the  old,  old  story;  it  is  the  old, 
but  on^yy  remedy  for  sin  and  sorrow.  Let  us 
depend  upon  the  gospel  itself  as  the  attract- 
ing power,  unmixed  with  human  poetry  and 
philosophy.  Mixtures  of  incongruous  things 
make  brittleness.  Preaching  that  corrupts 
God's  gospel  with  man's  folly  lacks  consist- 
ency and  coherence  ;   it  is  doomed,  like  Nebu- 


SPURGEON.  231 

chadnezzar's  image;    it  is  on  a  wrong  basis, 
and  will  fall  and  be  ground  to  powder. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  marble-cutter,  with 
chisel  and  hammer  working  a  block  of  stone 
into  a  statue.     A  preacher  who  was  looking 
on  said,  -  I  wish  I  could,  on  hearts  of  stone"! 
deal   such  transforming   blows  !  "     -  Perhaps 
you  might,"  was  the  workman's  quiet  answer, 
"if,  like  me,  you  worked  on  your  knees."    We 
are   deeply   and    unalterably   persuaded   that 
W\Qpozver  of  prayer  is  the  lacking,  if  not  the 
lost,  power  of  the   Christian   ministry  of  to- 
day.    The  work  done   on   the   knees   is   the 
only  work  that  evinces  or  effects  the  trans- 
formation which  is  a  supernatural  sign  that 
God  is  with  the  workman.     The  Bible,  studied 
on  the  knees,  becomes  a  new  book ;   the  cross, 
seen  from  the  knees,  wears  a  new  halo ;   the 
sermon,  wrought  out  on  the  knees,  thrills  with 
a  new  power.     Mr.   Spurgeon's  whole  work 
is  vitalized  by  the  breath  of  prayer,  which  is, 
after  all,  the  breath  of  God. 

While  the  work  on  the  new  Tabernacle  was 
yet  scarcely  begun,   in    1859   Mr.   Spurgeon 


232  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

and  one  of  his  praying  deacons  met  on  the 
ground  one  evening,  after  the  workmen  had 
gone,  and  there  besought  God  for  a  blessing 
on  the  work  and  its  safe  completion,  and 
that  no  one  engaged  upon  it  might  suffer 
harm.  The  prayer  was  answered  in  abun- 
dance ;  not  a  man  was  hurt  in  the  entire 
course  of  building.  Again,  in  1861,  as  the 
work  neared  completion,  there  were  put  on 
record  the  fact  that  four  thousand  pounds 
were  needed  to  open  it  free  of  debt,  and  the 
prayer  that  God  would  bestow  the  needed 
money.  The  pastor  and  leaders  in  the  move- 
ment afiixed  their  signatures  to  this  covenant 
of  prayer.  Four  months  later,  a  record  was 
added  that  the  prayer  was  answered  in  abun- 
dance and  in  anticipation  of  the  actual  need. 
This  covenant  of  praise  was  similarly  signed  ; 
they  set  to  their  seal  that  God  is  true,  and 
asked  His  continual  blessing  on  the  new 
building.  Shortly  after,  the  house,  built  at 
a  cost  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  by  a  comparatively  poor  congre- 
gation, was  dedicated  without  debt.     A  work 


SPURGEON.  233 

SO  begun  and  so  carried  on  must  have  upon 
it  God's  seal. 

If  we  could  have  in  our  churches  to-day 
a  revival  of  plain  preaching  and  prevailing 
prayer,  without  one  new  condition  or  addi- 
tion every  such  church  would  become  a 
centre  of  evangelism.  We  must  stop  seek- 
ing for,  and  planning  for,  success  of  a  worldly 
sort  or  upon  a  worldly  basis.  All  the  attrac- 
tions and  adornments  of  the  world  cannot 
make  up  for  the  lack  of  spiritual  power.  If 
the  angel  no  longer  comes  down  and  stirs 
the  pool,  vainly  shall  we  call  in  the  quacks 
of  Jerusalem  to  impregnate  the  waters  with 
medicinal  drugs.  We  must  cry  to  Heaven 
till  the  angel  comes  down  and  imparts  heal- 
ing virtue. 

God's  purpose  in  raising  up  Spurgeon 
seems  to  be  to  rebuke,  both  in  pulpit  and 
pew,  apathy  and  idleness,  unbelief  and  world- 
liness ;  to  show  that  no  new  measures  are 
needed ;  that  the  old  gospel  is  still  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation.  One 
anointed  tongue  and  pen  have  been  at  work 


234  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

for  a  generation;  wherever  that  voice  has 
reached  or  that  pen  scattered  through  the 
press  its  miUion  leaves,  there  the  sacred  fires 
have  been  kindled.  Let  us  learn !  and  from 
closet  and  pulpit,  in  family  and  assembly  of 
believers,  let  us  pray  the  Lord  God  of  Elijah 
for  the  fire  from  above,  till  even  the  unbe- 
hever  is  compelled  to  shout,  **  The  Lord  He 
is  God !  " 


SHA  FTESB  URY.  235 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

SHAFTESBURY,     THE     PHILANTHROPIC 
EVANGELIST. 


HEN  Admiral  Foote,  in  the  harbor  of 
Bangkok,  received  the  king  of  Siam 
on  board  his  flagship,  the  Christian 
commander  asked  a  blessing  at  dinner. 
**  Why,"  said  the  king,  "  you  do  just  like  the 
missionaries !  "  "I  too  am  a  missionary," 
was  the  reply. 

Recently  one  has  passed  away,  whose  pub- 
lic life  of  over  fifty  years  was  linked  with 
more  active  philanthropies  than  any  man 
before  him ;  and  who,  though  heir  to  estates 
and  titles,  found  no  human  being,  however 
poor,  wretched,  outcast,  or  filthy,  whom  he 
would  not  visit  on  an  errand  of  mercy  in  any 
place,  however  dark  and  dismal. 

Finding  the  condition  of  Insane  patients 
in  hospitals,  workers  in  mines  and  factories, 


236  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

dwellers  in  tenement  houses,  and  the  out- 
cast population  of  towns  and  cities,  a  disgrace 
to  Christian  civilization,  he,  like  Michael 
Angelo,  criticised  "  by  creation,  not  by  find- 
ing fault,"  and  set  himself  to  create  a  new 
state  of  things,  moved  by  an  evangelistic 
purpose  to  spread  the  blessings  of  the 
gospel. 

He  carried  on  his  investigations  in  person, 
and  then  in  person  carried  out  his  benevo- 
lent schemes.  He  went  into  the  worst 
quarters  of  London,  at  midnight,  where  the 
vermin  of  society  hide;  to  the  vagrants' 
hiding-places  in  dismal  vaults  and  under 
arches,  to  bring  homeless  wretches  to  the 
ragged  school,  and  sit  at  their  side  to  speak 
to  them  words  of  hope  and  love,  and  awake 
longings  for  a  better  life,  — exchanging  a  night 
of  rest  for  one  of  sleepless  toil,  that  he  might 
introduce  to  the  blessings  of  a  home  the 
poor  outcast. 

We  may  find  this  same  man  in  the  chair 
at  great  anniversary  meetings,  eloquently 
addressing  vast  throngs ;   there  is  no  part  of 


SHAFTESBURY. 


^17 


the  grand  battlefield  where  Christianity  con- 
fronts the  foes  of  God  and  man  and  seeks 
to  right  human  wrongs,  but  he  is  there  to 
watch  the  fate  of  the  conflict,  kindle  new 
enthusiasm  in  the  war  of  the  ages,  and  take 
up  arms  against  the  foe. 

Again,  he  is  in  the  House  of  Commons  or 
of  Lords,  pleading  for  remedial  legislation, 
forcing  commoners  and  peers  to  face  the 
facts  of  English  society,  unveiling  the  evils 
which  he  has  himself  explored,  carrying 
through  Parliament  scores  of  bills  of  relief 
for  the  neglected  operatives  and  the  op- 
pressed workingmen,  and  measures  of  reform 
for  the  unfortunate  and  outcast  classes.  By 
this  man's  importunate  and  resolute  plea, 
hours  of  labor  are  shortened,  sanitary  and 
educational  provisions  secured,  cruelties 
abolished,  and  crimes  abated.  He  befriends 
alike  the  little  chimney-sweeps  and  the  shoe- 
blacks, the  outcast  and  the  criminal ;  for  his 
motto,  like  that  of  Haller,  is  ''  Christo  in 
fauperibtisy 

Again,  he  might  be  seen  distributing  prizes 


238  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

at  the  flower  shows.  He  valued  these  as 
encouragements  to  window  gardening,  gentle 
habits,  and  happy  homes;  as  occasions  of 
mixing  with  the  people,  and  bringing  together 
those  whom  social  distinctions  ordinarily 
separated ;  and  many  are  the  little  hands  he 
caressed  and  the  lips  he  kissed,  from  among 
the  children  of  the  poor,  as  he  rewarded  their 
care  of  their  mute  little  plants. 

The  earl  might  be  found  meeting  with 
the  coster-mongers,  encouraging  them  to 
habits  of  thrift  and  neatness ;  teaching  them 
to  care  even  for  their  donkeys,  and,  in  order 
to  identify  himself  with  them,  himself  buying 
a  donkey  and  a  barrow  and  then  lending 
them,  with  the  Shaftesbury  arms  embla- 
zoned on  the  barrow,  to  his  poorer  fellow- 
costers.  He  told  them  if  they  had  any 
grievances  to  be  redressed  to  write  to  him, 
and  to  be  sure  to  add  to  his  name,  *'  Coster." 
When  the  grateful  coster-mongers  met,  a 
thousand  strong,  and  presented  him  with  a 
donkey,  he  rose  to  receive  him,  put  over 
his  neck   his  own    arm,  and    said    he    could 


SHAFTESB  URY.  239 

wish  no  more  than  to  be  as  patient,  unmur- 
muring, and  faithful  as  that  donkey ;  then, 
as  the  animal  was  led  from  the  platform, 
he  facetiously  accepted  the  chair  which  the 
donkey  had  vacated. 

Shaftesbury  might  be  found  familiarly  talk- 
ing to  the  homeless  boys  at  Saint  Giles's 
Refuge,  questioning  them  as  to  their  habits 
of  life,  means  of  livelihood,  lodging-places; 
appealing  to  their  better  natures,  encourag- 
ing them  to  industry  and  honesty,  virtue  and 
piety,  and  promising  to  use  his  influence 
with  the  government  to  grant  a  frigate  for  a 
training-ship,  and  to  institute  refuges  and 
schools  for  them.  The  shoe-blacks  all  knew 
him,  and  called  him  "  Our  Earl." 

Again,  we  find  him  in  the  midst  of  four 
hundred  professed  criminals.  That  was  a 
most  unique  gathering.  Forty  notorious 
thieves  put  their  names  to  a  ''  round-robin," 
asking  him  to  meet  men  of  their  class;  and 
with  no  companion  but  Thomas  Jackson, 
the  **  thieves'  missionary,"  he  confronted  an 
assembly    from     which     all    but    professed 


240  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

criminals  were  rigidly  excluded.  And  there, 
after  opening  devotional  exercises,  he  frankly 
asked  them  of  their  manner  of  life,  and  as 
frankly  they  confessed  the  crimes  by  which 
they  lived.  He  besought  them  to  forsake 
the  old  life  for  a  new  career ;  and  when  they 
told  him  that  they  "  must  either  steal  or  die," 
and  that  "prayer,  however  good,  was  not  food 
for  an  empty  stomach,"  he  planned  in  their 
behalf  the  emigration  scheme  that  paved  the 
way  for  hundreds  to  begin  life  anew,  under 
more  hopeful  surroundings. 

Once  he  stood  in  the  midst  of  a  throng 
at  Guildhall,  met  to  commemorate  his  eigh- 
tieth anniversary.  The  highest  and  noblest 
were  there,  with  the  lowest  and  humblest; 
and  outside,  the  flower-girls,  the  coster-mon- 
gers with  donkeys  and  barrows,  in  holiday 
dress,  and  the  ragged-school  children,  —  all 
come  to  salute  the  old  man  of  fourscore  who 
had  proved  himself  the  greatest  benefactor 
of  his  generation  ! 

How  long  will  it  take  us  to  learn  that  the 
condition  of  the  common  people  is  the  gauge 


SHA  FTESB  UK  V.  24 1 

of  the  commonwealth?  Robert  Peel  gave  to 
his  daughter  a  splendid  riding-habit,  as  a 
birthday  gift ;  but  it  held  the  germs  of  malig- 
nant typhus,  caught  from  the  poor  husband 
over  whom  the  seamstress,  who  wrought  its 
embroidery,  had  thrown  it,  when  he  shook 
with  the  chills  of  a  fatal  fever.  And  from 
that  garment  the  rich  man's  daughter  took 
the  terrible  infection,  and  the  riding-habit 
was  exchanged  for  the  shroud. 

The  safety  of  the  highest  is  bound  up  with 
the  lowest.  Society  avenges  all  neglect  of 
her  poor  and  outcast  ones :  the  capstone  of 
the  pyramid  sits  insecurely  when  the  base  is 
unsafe.  Shaftesbury  saw  this,  and  his  life- 
long purpose  and  passion  were  to  uplift  to  a 
better  estate  those  who  were  lowest  and  least. 

Urged  again  and  again  to  accept  office, 
with  its  honors  and  dignities,  he  replied,  as 
to  Palmerston  in  1855  :  **  I  cannot  satisfy  my- 
self that  the  call  to  accept  office  is  a  divine 
call ;  but  I  am  satisfied  that  He  Jias  called  me 
to  labor  among  the  poor''  From  the  point 
of  view  of  the  poor  and  working  classes,  he 
16 


242  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

habitually  looked  at  every  question.  What 
he  bestowed  on  the  poor  was  not  pity  nor 
patronage,  but  syinpaihy  and  service,  —  going 
into  the  worst  quarters  to  carry  toys  to  the 
little  ones ;  moving  among  them  on  holidays, 
as  one  of  them;  reading  and  praying  at  the 
bedside  of  their  sick  and  dying;  and,  most 
wonderful  of  all,  never  knozvn  to  make  even 
the  most  trifiing  promise  to  them  which  he  left 
unfulfilled.  In  one  winter  ten  thousand 
basins  of  soup  and  bread  made  in  his  own 
house  were  distributed  among  them. 

Shaftesbury  was  an  evangelist  as  well  as 
a  philanthropist.  His  Evangelical  doctrine 
inspired  his  evangelism.  He  believed  in  the 
depravity  of  the  natural  heart,  in  the  necessity 
of  the  new  birth  and  trust  in  atoning  blood, 
and  in  a  future  state  of  reward  and  punish- 
ment. Having  no  authority  for  a  probation 
in  the  next  life,  he  sought  to  improve  the 
opportunities  of  this.  His  whole  faith  and 
life  moved  about  a  threefold  centre,  —  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  the  cross  of  atonement, 
and  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 


SHAFTESBURY.  2^3 

He  could  be  found  liimself  taking  part  in 
evangelistic  services  such  as  were  so  success- 
fully held  in  Exeter  Hall  for  non-church 
goers.  He  rejoiced  in  such  efforts  to  reach 
the  neglecters  of  worship,  and  in  the  absence 
of  all  discrimination  between  rich  and  poor, 
high  and  low. 

It  is  hardly  credible  that  up  to  within 
about  thirty  years  English  legislation  actu- 
ally hindered  evangelization,  forbidding  the 
gathering  of  even  a  small  assembly  for  wor- 
ship in  a  private  house.  This  relic  of  bar- 
barism was  through  his  influence  swept  from 
the  statute  book,  and  so  another  obstacle 
was  removed  out  of  the  way  of  reaching  the 
neglected  with  the  gospel. 

But  Shaftesbury's  evangelism  was  private 
and  personal.  He  did  not  exhaust  his  zeal 
in  public  efforts  to  secure  legislation:  never 
did  he  lose  a  chance  of  bringing  before  an 
individual  or  a  community  the  claims  of 
personal  religion. 

His  evangelistic  spirit  showed  itself  in  his 
generous  and  constant  ghins.     To  him  the 


244  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

common  phrase,  "  munificent  bequests,"  had 
no  meaning.  What  munificence  can  there 
be  in  bequeathing  to  purposes  of  benevo- 
lence what  can  be  no  longer  used  for  pur- 
poses of  self-indulgence?  He  did  believe  in 
7nunificent  donations,  and  kept  himself  poor 
by  his  ceaseless  charity.  But  he  illustrated 
his  own  principle,  of  antedating  the  pleasure 
of  the  recipient  by  the  joy  of  the  donor,  and 
also  the  final  rewards  of  sacrifice  for  others 
by  the  reverence  and  gratitude  showered  upon 
him  while  yet  living  and  doing  good.  He 
held  nothing  but  his  conscience  to  be  his 
own,  all  else  being  subject  to  the  calls  and 
needs  of  suffering  humanity.  No  wonder 
that  he  was  the  constant  recipient  of  gifts 
from  those  he  sought  to  bless,  — not  paintings 
and  statues  only,  but  touching  memorials  of 
the  love  of  the  poor:  over  his  bed  a  sampler 
worked  by  factory  girls ;  upon  his  bed  a 
patchwork  coverlet  made  by  the  ragged- 
school  children ;  in  fact,  by  day  and  by  night 
he  was  literally  clothed  with  the  tributes  of 
the  grateful  poor  whose  lifelong  friend  he  was. 


SHAFTESBURY. 


245 


His  life  illustrated  the  vicarious  law:  *' He 
saved  others ;  himself  he  cannot  save."  His 
self-giving  to  the  cause  of  the  poor  and 
friendless  was  a  costly  one:  it  cost  pain  of 
body  and  exquisite  suffering  to  his  keen, 
sympathetic  sensibilities,  and  cares  and  anxi- 
eties that  left  even  on  his  face  the  pathetic 
lines  of  a  visage  marred  by  sorrow.  But 
what  a  recompense  of  reward  is  now  his,  who 
"  could  not  bear  to  leave  this  world  with  all 
the  misery  in  it,"  even  for  a  heaven  in  which 
there  is  no  sorrow. 

A  most  important  fact  and  factor  in 
Shaftesbury's  life  must  not  be  passed  by. 
The  religious  impulse  of  his  whole  character 
and  career  is  directly  traceable  to  Maria  Millis, 
his  pious  old  nurse,  who,  before  he  was  seven 
years  old,  taught  him  of  Jesus,  and  at  whose 
side  he  learned  the  prayer  which  he  never 
failed  to  use  till  his  dying  day.  Neglected 
by  his  own  parents,  the  evangelist  of  Parlia- 
ment owed  to  this  evangelist  of  the  nursery 
the  first  lessons  he  learned  in  the  school  of 
Christ.     The  watch  she  left  to  him  he  wore 


246  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

on  his  person  as  a  reminder  of  the  sacred 
touch  by  which  she  set  in  motion  and  regu- 
lated the  dehcate  mechanism  of  his  being, 
nor  would  he  allow  it  to  be  displaced  by  the 
costliest  chronometer. 

His  burial  scene  is  itself  a  history.  In 
the  great  Abbey  a  mourning  nation  crowds 
about  his  bier,  on  which  lie,  side  by  side, 
floral  tributes  of  crown  princesses  and  flower- 
girls  ;  and  when  it  is  borne  to  its  simple 
sepulchre,  thousands  throng  the  streets, 
every  man  with  hat  uplifted,  and  almost 
every  bonnet  clad  in  crape.  Artisans  and 
laborers,  factory  hands  and  chimney-sweeps, 
seamstresses  and  flower-girls,  deputations 
from  the  homes  and  refuges  and  training- 
ships,  mission  organizations  and  charitable 
societies,  —  all  are  therewith  draped  banners; 
and  the  hearse  is  preceded  by  the  coster- 
mongers'  band,  playing  ''  Safe  in  the  arms 
of  Jesus !  " 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  life  of  a  man  of 
whom  the  Duke  of  Argyll  said,  that  "  the 
social  reforms  of  the  last  century  have  been 


SHAFTESBURY.  247 

mainly  due  to  the  Influence,  character,  and 
perseverance  of  one  man,  — Lord  Shaftes- 
bury." The  motto  of  his  family,  embodied 
and  adorned   in  his  Hfe,   was 


LOVE  —  SERVE." 


248  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

MOODY,   THE   EVANGELIST   OF  THE    PEOPLE, 

R.  MOODY,  what  is  the  way  to 
reach  the  masses  with  the  gos- 
pel?" "Go  FOR  them!"  was 
the  quaint  and  characteristic  answer;  and  it 
expresses  the  Hfe  principle  of  Dwight  L. 
Moody. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  career  as  a 
Christian,  nothing  has  been  more  character- 
istic of  him  than  his  aggressive  evangelism. 
He  has  never  waited  for  open  doors  to  pre- 
sent themselves  ;  he  has  gone  to  closed 
doors  and  thrown  them  open.  He  has  not 
waited  for  others  to  come  to  him ;  he  has 
gone  after  them,  from  the  days  when  he 
gathered  into  Sabbath-school  his  own  class 
from  the  street,  till  now.  His  motto  has 
been:    "Launch    out  into  the    deep  and   let 


MOODY.  249 

down  your  nets  for  a  draught!"  If  there 
be  one  lesson  of  his  Hfe  that  will  be  long 
remembered,  it  is  this  practical  proof  of 
what  one  man  with  no  early  opportunities 
or  social  advantages,  with  neither  wealth  nor 
culture,  can  do,  with  God  only  as  his  patron 
and  helper. 

Mr.  Moody,  like  any  true  workman  of  God, 
avoids  all  personal  prominence ;  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that  encomiums  lavishly  used  on 
the  Lord's  laborers  are  out  of  place :  the  only 
time  for  eulogy  is  when  the  time  comes  for 
the  elegy.  But  if  there  was  ever  a  man  since 
John  Wesley  who  could  claim  the  world  as 
his  parish,  it  is  Dwight  L.  Moody.  His  life 
may  be  divided  into  four  marked  periods : 
first,  as  a  Sunday-school  worker;  then,  as  the 
organizer  of  a  church  for  the  people;  then, 
as  an  evangelist  on  both  sides  the  sea;  and 
finally,  as  an  educator  of  youth. 

In  all  these  departments  his  success  may 
be  easily  traced  to  his  singleness  of  aim. 
He  sees  and  feels  the  destitution  of  the  great 
masses  of  the  people;   and  instead  of  saying 


250  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

to  others,  *'  Go  and  carry  the  gospel  to  them," 
he  goes  himself.  When  he  went  into  the 
street  and  gathered  in  that  first  class  of 
rough,  ragged,  dirty  urchins,  and  sat  down 
among  them  to  teach  them  out  of  God's 
Word,  he  struck  the  key-note  of  all  his  sub- 
sequent career:  going  after  souls.  Every 
step  of  success  marked  a  new  stage  of  prog- 
ress. If  one  class  of  gamins  could  be  gath- 
ered out  of  the  street,  and  reformed  and 
reclaimed  to  God,  why  not  a  hundred?  And 
so  the  work  grew,  until  a  mission  Sunday- 
school  on  the  North  Side  of  Chicago,  and 
then  the  Chicago  Avenue  Church,  were  the 
result;  and  the  Sunday-school  teacher  found 
himself  the  unexpected  centre  of  a  great 
evangelistic  church  in  the  metropolis  of  the 
West. 

Meanwhile  his  knowledge  of  the  Word 
and  his  power  in  handling  it  were  growing. 
The  man  of  one  book  was  getting  a  strange 
education  in  the  school  of  Christ.  In  that 
book  were  his  grammar  and  lexicon,  his  logic 
and  his  philosophy,  his  poetry  and  his  ora- 


MOODY.  2^\ 

tory.     And   as  he   studied   and   mastered   it, 
his  imagination  grew  chaste,  his  style  pure, 
his  EngHsh  correct  and  elegant,  his  argument 
convincing,  his  appeals  persuasive.     He  was 
getting  God's  university  education,  — learning 
that  greatest  logic,  the  "demonstration  of  the 
Spirit;  "  that  highest  science,  the  "knowledge 
of  God  ;  "  that  loftiest  philosophy,  the  "  mys- 
tery of  grace."     Here   was    his    analysis    of 
human    nature,     his    universal    history,    his 
dictionary  of  language,  his  system  of  ethics, 
his  tutor  in  homiletics,  and  his  encyclopsedia 
of  illustrations. 

Like  Apollos,  he  became  mighty  in  the 
Scriptures;  and  those  who  once  sneered  at 
his  enthusiasm  and  ridiculed  his  English 
were  glad  to  sit  at  his  feet  who  was  taught 
of  God.  And  so  he  who  began  as  a  humble 
Sunday-school  teacher,  and  had  grown  to  the 
founder  of  a  church  for  the  people,  came  by 
insensible  degrees  to  be  an  evangelist  every- 
where sought  and  welcomed.  From  Chicago 
he  began  to  go  out  more  and  more  fre- 
quently  and    widely    on    evangehstic    tours, 


252 


E  VA  NGELIS  TIC   WORK. 


and  everywhere  rapid  results  followed:  the 
reaper  overtook  the  ploughman,  and  the 
treader  of  grapes  him  that  sowed  the  seed. 
He  had  learned  to  preach  simply,  —  let  us 
rather  say  he  had  not  learned  to  preach 
otherwise;  and  in  the  unaffected  language 
of  nature,  uncorrupted  by  the  fastidious 
culture  of  the  schools,  he  spoke  face  to  face 
with  men;  and  they  heard  him.  Sprightly 
and  vivacious,  with  a  touch  of  humor  as  well 
as  pathos,  direct  and  pointed  in  his  appeals, 
urging  to  an  immediate  decision,  and  feeling 
his  dependence  on  the  Spirit  of  God,  he 
compelled  all  classes  to  acknowledge  that 
he  was  a  man  of  power.  And  yet  God  gave 
him  grace  to  be  humble ;  not  to  think  of 
himself  more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think, 
but  to  feel  that  he  was  himself  nothing,  and 
that  God  was  all. 

In  1872  he  and  Mr.  Sankey  crossed  the  sea 
to  begin  an  evangelistic  campaign  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland.  God  set  His  seal  on  that 
work  in  such  a  marvellous  manner  that  it 
became  plain  that  Chicago  and  the  Chicago 


MOOD  V.  253 

Avenue  Church  were  no  longer  to  held  and 
confine  Mr.  Moody.  And  their  return  to 
America  was  the  signal  for  that  amazing  series 
of  special  services,  evangelistic  meetings,  and 
Christian  conventions  which  have  made  the 
entire  United  States  the  field  for  his  tillage. 

Of  these  services  abroad  and  at  home  we 
have  no  need  to  write,  for  both  American 
and  British  readers  are  familiar  with  them. 
But  it  is  generally  conceded  that  since  the 
days  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  no  man  has 
ever  addressed  audiences  so  vast,  or  urged 
home  the  vital  truths  of  the  gospel  more 
effectively  and  powerfully. 

Northfield  was  his  birthplace  and  the 
home  of  his  boyhood.  It  had  attractions  of 
its  own.  His  mother  still  lived  there,  and 
there  he  determined  to  make  his  home.  It 
is  a  beautiful  spot ;  the  view  from  his  front 
porch  is  surpassed  nowhere  for  picturesque- 
ness :  the  lower  spurs  of  the  White  and 
Green  Mountains  are  seen  to  the  north  and 
west;  the  sinuous  Connecticut  flows  just  in 
the  middle  ground  of  the  picture. 


254  EVANGELISTIC   WORK, 

Mr.  Moody  had  long  felt  the  disadvantage 
of  his  early  lack  of  education ;  and  he  con- 
ceived that  one  of  the  great  demands  of  the 
day  is  for  an  education  for  the  daughters  of 
plain  people  in  farming  and  manufacturing 
communities,  who  cannot  afford  to  pay  for 
style,  but  are  the  backbone  of  the  Common- 
wealth. Partly  as  an  experiment,  not  him- 
self knowing  whereunto  this  would  grow,  he 
added  somewhat  to  his  own  house,  and 
opened  it  for  a  school.  The  price  was  to 
be  nominal,  —  it  is  now  one  hundred  dollars 
a  year,  —  the  Bible  to  be  the  basis  of  every- 
thing and  the  centre  of  the  scheme  of  cul- 
ture. Twenty  girls  filled  this  house,  and 
others  clamored  for  admission.  A  small 
brick  building  was  put  up  on  the  other  side 
of  the  road,  and  that  was  filled  and  more 
room  needed.  Then  an  opportunity  was 
afforded  of  purchasing  ample  grounds  to 
the  north  and  east  of  Mr.  Moody's  home, 
and  it  was  done.  In  1879  East  Hall  was 
built,  with  rooms  for  about  sixty  students; 
then  BonarHall;    in  1884  Marquand  Memo- 


MOOD  V. 


255 


rial  Hall;  then  Recitation  Hall  in  1885,  which 
Mr.  Moody  says  was  "  sung  up "  by  Mr. 
Sankey;  and  now  Weston  Hall  is  added,  and 
Talcott  Library  is  in  process  of  erection,  — 
the  whole  property  being  worth  probably  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Applicants  must 
be  fifteen  years  old  and  in  good  health,  and 
must  pass  an  examination  in  the  initial  and 
rudimentary  branches.  The  students  do  most 
of  the  domestic  work,  mainly  to  lessen  ex- 
pense and  to  promote  sensible  ideas  of  the 
dignity  of  work.  The  aim  is  to  send  out 
young  women  trained  in  all  the  best  elements 
of  an  English  education,  and  inspired  with 
Bible  knowledge  and  a  missionary  spirit.  A 
Ladies'  Aid  Society  is  organized  to  lend  money 
to  needy  and  worthy  students,  the  loan  to  be 
repaid  into  the  fund  as  they  are  able. 

One  thing  leads  to  another.  The  Mt. 
Hermon  school  for  boys,  two  or  three  miles 
southwest,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
was  Mr.  Moody's  next  step.  A  fine  farm  of 
four  hundred  acres,  suddenly  found  to  be  in 
the   market,  was  bought  for  a  nominal  sum. 


256  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

In  1885  five  brick  cottages  were  built,  then 
Recitation  Hall;  and  in  1886  Crossley  Hall 
and  the  Dining  Hall.  And  here  Christian 
young  men  come  to  get  an  education  pre- 
eminently in  the  Word  of  God  and  in  evan- 
gelistic work.  Mr.  Moody  does  not  expect 
to  graduate  from  this  school  thoroughly 
equipped  ministers  of  the  gospel,  but,  as  he 
says,  skirmishers,  —  Christian  workers  fitted  to 
handle  the  Word  of  God  skilfully,  and  go  and 
work  personally  among  the  masses  in  fields 
not  ordinarily  reached. 

The  establishment  of  a  permanent  school 
for  evangelists  is  one  of  the  greatest  needs 
of  our  day.  There  are  many  whose  circum- 
stances preclude  an  extended  course  of 
study,  —  poor  men,  men  advanced  in  years  or 
having  families,  who  desire  to  qualify  them- 
selves by  a  short  course  of  study  in  the  Eng- 
lish Bible  for  such  teaching,  Bible-reading, 
lay  preaching,  and  Christian  work  as  they 
may  be  able  to  do.  We  do  not  read  the 
signs  of  the  times  aright,  if  there  be  not  a 
demand   for  some   such   training   schools  for 


MOODY. 


257 


Christian  workers.  Our  colleges  and  even 
our  theological  seminaries  are  training  Chris- 
tian ministers  and  scholars.  But  there  are 
many  who  cannot  go  to  college  or  seminary, 
who  have  passion  for  souls,  love  for  the 
Word,  capacity  to  work,  and  whom  God  has 
touched  with  the  celestial  fire.  They  will 
never  be  great  men,  nor  scholars,  nor  trans- 
lators of  the  Bible,  nor  theological  profes- 
sors ;  but,  properly  trained  in  the  Word  of 
God  and  for  His  work,  they  may  become  a 
mighty  agency  in  evangelization.  To  us  it 
seems  as  though  Mr.  Moody  had  been 
specially  raised  up  of  God  to  encourage  and 
perhaps  to  found  such  a  school  for  Christian 
workers.  But  there  ought  to  be  many,  in 
different  parts  of  our  land  and  of  the  world. 
The  disproportion  between  our  workers  and 
the  field  is  painfully  obvious.  We  cannot 
supply  the  needs  of  a  world  by  our  present 
educational  system.  We  need  imperatively 
some  other  and  supplementary  institution 
for  the  training  of  laymen  for  the  work  of 
God. 

17 


258  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

We  feel  constrained  to  add,  at  risk  of  being 
misunderstood,  that  we  believe  some  of  our 
theological  schools  lack  in  a  scriptural  and  a 
spiritual  atmosphere.  There  are  elaborate 
lectures  on  theology,  church  history,  homi- 
letics,  and  kindred  themes,  and  courses  of 
study  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  exegesis ;  but 
theology  is  often  taught  more  from  its  po- 
lemic than  its  practical  side ;  church  history 
is  too  much  a  cold  review  of  old  controver- 
sies, and  homiletics  is  often  simply  the  art 
of  constructing  a  finished  literary  address. 
A  few  months  of  direct  evangelistic  labor 
will  do  more  for  a  man's  practical  qualifica- 
tion for  the  work  of  preaching  the  gospel 
than  years  of  study  of  the  art  of  preaching, 
from  an  intellectual  point  of  view.  We  yearn 
to  see  theology  taught  from  a  biblical  and 
spiritual  and  practical  side,  teaching  young 
men  not  simply  how  to  split  hairs,  or  throw 
up  defences,  or  handle  controversial  weapons, 
but  how  to  use  Bible  truth  for  the  salvation 
and  sanctification  of  souls.  We  should  like 
to    see    the    first    book    of    church    history. 


MOODY.  2^C) 

namely,  the   Acts  of  the  Apostles,  so  thor- 
oughly   mastered    as    that    students    should 
learn  how  men  anointed  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
go  forth  to  win  souls  and  organize  churches ; 
and    learn    to    analyze    those    first    apostolic 
sermons    and    reproduce    their    methods    of 
handling  prophecy  and  pressing  home  Evan- 
gelical   truth,   as   modern    missionaries    train 
their  converts  and   lay  helpers.     We  should 
like    to    see    homiletics    taught    more    as    a 
divine  art  of ''  thinking  God's  thoughts  after 
God,"   men  forgetting   the    literary  standard 
in   the    engrossing    aim    after  pozvcr,    caring 
less   for  the   defectiveness  of  the   essay  and 
more    for    the    effectiveness    of   the    appeal. 
We   could    even    forego    a   little   of  Hebrew 
and   Greek   learning,  if  necessary,  that   men 
might    know    more    of   the    English    Bible, 
might    master    its    contents,    know   what    it 
teaches,    get   some    adequate    conception    of 
its  beauties,  and  be  able  to  present  its   tes- 
timony to  the  great  themes  of  redemption. 
We  would  not  abate  the  zeal  for  a  thoroughly 
educated    and    qualified    ministry;     but    we 


260  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

yearn  to  see  men  filled  and  thrilled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  with  passion  for  souls,  with  a 
divine  enthusiasm  for  missions,  with  self- 
forgetfulness,  with  holy  ardor  and  fervor  in 
God's  work.  Cannot  something  be  done  to 
increase  in  all  our  educational  institutions 
the  scriptural,  spiritual  tone,  and  send  out 
men,  not  coldly  intellectual  to  preach  ser- 
mons complete  homiletically  but  powerless 
spiritually;  but  rather  at  white  heat,  glow- 
ing with  seraphic  earnestness,  full  of  the 
gospel,  trained  in  the  Word  of  God,  able  to 
wield  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  with  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Cannot  the  training  of 
the  schools  be  so  combined  with  actual  ex- 
perience in  the  work  of  winning  souls,  as 
that  young  men  shall  not  be  withdrawn  too 
much  into  the  class-room  and  the  study,  and 
lose  the  quickening  impulse  of  constant  con- 
tact with  souls  and  personal  work  for  Christ? 
Certainly  Mr.  Moody's  conferences  and  sum- 
mer schools  are  suggesting  and  supplying  a 
lack.  They  magnify  three  things  till  they 
fill    the   whole   horizon   of   thought,   namely, 


MOODY.  261 

the  Word  of  God,  the  person  and  work  of 
Christ,  and  the  person  and  work  of  the  Holy- 
Ghost.  No  man  can  attend  them  without 
being  impressed  with  the  riches  of  the  Bible, 
the  all-sufficiency  of  Jesus,  and  the  necessity 
of  a  Divine  anointing  for  service.  No  wonder 
that  believers  get  there  a  new  inspiration  in 
Bible  study,  a  new  enthusiasm  for  Christ  as 
their  Redeemer,  and  a  new  qualification  for 
winning  souls  ! 


262  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER   XK 

BLISS,   THE    SINGING   EVANGELIST. 

T  was  said  of  Beethoven  and  Mozart, 
that  it  was  the  office  of  one  "  to  Hft 
mortals  up,"  and  of  the  other  "  to 
bring  angels  down."  Such  is  the  power 
of  that  subtile,  weird  thing  which  we  call 
music. 

Visitors  at  Rome,  Pa.,  will  see  in  the  mod- 
est cemetery  a  plain  marble  shaft  twenty 
feet  high,  surmounted  b}^  a  cap  and  draped 
urn.  It  bears  a  significant  inscription : 
''  Erected  by  the  Sunday-schools  of  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  in  response 
to  the  invitation  of  D.  L.  Moody,  as  a  me- 
morial to  Philip  P.  Bliss,  author  of  '  Hold 
the  Fort'  and  other  gospel  songs." 

On  the  reverse  side  are  the  names  of  Mr. 
Bliss  and  his  wife,  Mrs.  Lucy  Young  Bliss, 


BLISS.  263 

with  the  sad  record  of  their  tragical  death 
by  the  falHng-  of  the  railroad  bridge  at  Ash- 
tabula, Ohio,  Dec.  29,  1876. 

Here  is  the  memorial  of  a  man  vvho 
preached  the  gospel  in  song.  With  him  the 
service  of  song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord 
was  a  service  of  worship  and  a  means  of 
evangelism.  God  raised  him  up  to  show  us 
what  a  spirit  could  be  carried  into  song, 
and  w4iat  capacities  consecrated  song  has 
for  convicting,  converting,  sanctifying,  and 
educating. 

Yet  Mr.  Bliss  was  not  a  sweet  singer  only; 
but  a  poet,  composer,  and  evangelist,  as  well 
as  an  ideal  Christian  gentleman.  Dr.  Vin- 
cent says :  *'  He  was  one  of  the  noblest, 
gentlest,  holiest,  and  cheeriest  of  men." 
The  faith  that  dwelt  in  him  dwelt  first  in 
his  father,  whose  simple  childlike  trust  in 
God,  and  whose  continual  communion  with 
Jesus,  and  whose  happy  frame,  always  read- 
ing his  Bible  or  singing,  were  reproduced 
with  rare  fidelity  in  his  son.  If  any  one 
asks,  **  What's  in  a  name?"    we  only  point 


264  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

to  the  name,  Philip  Paul  Bliss.  What  a 
prophecy  that  name  was  of  a  character  that 
combined  the  simplicity  of  Philip,  the  devo- 
tion of  Paul,  and  the  uniform  bliss  of  one 
who  liv^ed  in  God  !  His  joy  especially  gave 
tone  if  not  tune  to  his  whole  life.  On  one 
occasion  late  in  his  life,  when  just  about  to 
sing,  "  More  joy  in  His  service,"  he  stopped 
and  said  to  Dr.  Goodwin :  "  I  don't  think  I 
can  sing  that  as  '  my  prayer '  any  more. 
It  seems  as  though  I  had  as  much  joy 
in  serving  the  Blessed  Master  as  I  can 
bear." 

Mr.  Bliss  had  in  early  life  few  educational 
advantages,  and  at  eleven  years  of  age  left 
home  and  went  to  work  on  a  farm.  But  at 
twelve  he  made  his  public  confession  of 
Christ,  though  all  through  childhood  he 
gave  evidence  that  he  was  a  child  of  God. 
Until  he  was  sixteen  his  energies  were  given 
to  the  toil  for  daily  bread. 

In  1855  he  spent  the  winter  at  school,  and 
such  was  his  quickness  to  learn  and  improve, 
that  the  next  winter  he  taiigJit  school. 


BLISS.  265 

His  passion  for  music  was  characteristic  of 
him  in  early  hfe.  When  an  awkward,  over- 
grown lad  of  ten  years,  he  passed  by  a  house 
and  heard  strains  of  music  that  so  charmed 
him  that,  barefoot  and  stranger  as  he  was, 
he  ventured  in  at  the  open  door,  and  stood 
entranced  but  unobserved.  It  was  the  first 
time  he  had  ever  seen  or  heard  a  piano,  and 
as  the  young  lady  ceased  playing,  he  ex- 
claimed, "  O  lady,  do  play  some  more !  " 
Startled,  she  turned  and  said,  *'  Get  out  of 
here  with  your  great  feet ! "  little  dreaming 
what  a  beautiful  flower  her  rudeness  was 
crushing. 

The  winter  of  1857  Mr.  Bliss  passed  in 
the  singing-school  of  Mr.  J.  G.  Towner,  and 
had  there  his  first  systematic  training  in  the 
divine  art;  he  also  attended  one  of  Brad- 
bury's musical  conventions.  His  life-work 
was  thus  providentially,  but  unconsciously, 
taking  shape.  The  next  winter  he  taught  in 
the  academy  at  Rome,  Pa.,  and  became  an 
inmate  of  the  family  of  Mr.  O.  F.  Young, 
whose  daughter   Lucy   he   married   in    1859. 


266  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

He  afterward  saw  that  this  was  the  very  best 
thing  he  could  have  done.  Their  married 
Hfe  was  one  long  concord  of  sweet  sounds, 
unmarred  even  by  those  discords  of  the 
seventh  that  lead  to  harmony.  They  were 
not  opposites,  but  they  were  apposites :  he 
poetic,  demonstrative,  impulsive,  impressi- 
ble; she  practical,  reserved,  persistent,  self- 
controlled. 

The  consciousness  grew  upon  Mr.  Bliss 
that  God  had  called  him  to  service,  and  that 
service  implied  his  being  used  of  God  to  the 
best  purpose  and  in  the  largest  measure. 
He  saw  that  if  he  had  any  gift,  it  was  that 
of  song;  and  it  grew  upon  him  that  to  set 
the  truth  of  the  gospel  to  music  was  a  grand 
aim  to  engross  his  life.  He  had,  however, 
rare  gifts  of  humor  and  mimicry;  and  on  one 
occasion,  after  singing  some  comical  medley 
in  a  musical  institute,  some  of  his  fellow- 
musicians  urged  him  to  enter  the  opera  field 
as  a  bouffe  singer.  It  would  have  been  a 
great  temptation  to  him,  but  for  his  love  to 
Christ.     God   had   a   grander  work  for  him. 


BLISS.  267 

and  a  nobler  platform  than  the  stage  of  the 
theatre. 

The  first  composition,  published    in    1864, 
gave   no  prophecy  of  his   future.     It  was   a 
mere  sentimental  song  tinged  with  religion. 
The  conception  of  using  song  as  a  vehicle 
for  gospel   truth  had    not  then    rooted    itself 
in  him;    but  it  was  slowly  forming,  and  led 
to  the  writing  of  both  songs   and   tunes  for 
"The  Prize,"  etc.     In   1869,  in   Chicago,  he 
heard    Mr.    Moody  for  the  first  time.     That 
meeting  proved   pivotal   as   to   his   after-life. 
Mr.  Moody's  attention  was  drawn  to  a  rather 
fine-looking  fellow  in  his  audience  in  Wood's 
Museum,  who  sang  with  great  sweetness  and 
power,  and   he  managed  to  get  hold  of  his 
hand  before  he  went  out  and  to  get  a  prom- 
ise from  him  of  more  help  in  the  same  line ; 
and  it  was  the  power  of  Bliss's  solo  singino- 
that  was  among  the  first  influences  that  led 
Moody  to  magnify  gospel  songs  as  a  means 
of  evangelization. 

In  May,   1870,  Mr.  Bliss  and  Mr.  Whittle 
first   met;    and    they  went   together   to    the 


268  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Winnebago  Sunday-school  convention,  were 
drawn  to  each  other,  and  for  a  time  their 
families  lived  in  the  same  house.  While  Mr. 
Bliss  was  leading  the  choir  and  superintend- 
ing the  Sabbath-school  in  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church,  he  developed  practically 
his  own  power  to  make  song  helpful  to 
worship  and  preaching.  As  he  stood  in  the 
choir,  gallery  during  rehearsals,  he  would 
point  to  the  crimson  cross  in  the  transept 
window,  and  say :  "  I  am  glad  we  have  the 
cross  always  before  us.  Let  us  forget  every- 
thing else  when  we  sing.  Let  us  seek  to 
have  the  people  lose  sight  of  us,  of  our 
efforts,  our  skill,  and  think  only  of  Him." 
The  pastor,  Dr.  Goodwin,  soon  learned  that 
he  need  have  no  fear  that  the  anthems  and 
voluntaries  that  such  a  leader  selected  would, 
either  before  or  after  the  sermon,  prove  a 
hindrance  to  its  power;  and  when  he  com- 
mitted to  him  the  closing  service,  unity  of 
impression  was  always  so  conserved  that  the 
effect  of  the  truth  was  only  deepened  and 
confirmed. 


BLISS.  269 

The    next   epoch    in    Mr.    Bhss's    hfe   was 
approaching.     During  the  winter  of  1873-74 
he  was  urged  by  Mr.  Moody,  then  in  Scot- 
land, to  give  up  all   else   and  devote  life  to 
the  singing  of  the  gospel.     While  weighing 
this  matter,  an  invitation   to   Waukegan   led 
Mr.  Whittle  and  Mr.  Bliss  to  hold  meetings 
of    an    evangelistic    nature    there    for   three 
days.     God's  spirit  was  present  in  power.     He 
used  Mr.  Whittle's  and  Mr.  Cole's  plain  preach- 
ing and  Mr.  Bliss's  pathetic  singing  in  a  very 
manifest  way,  that  could  not  be  mistaken.    As 
Mr.  Bliss  sang  "  Almost  Persuaded,"  sinners 
rose  in  all  parts  of  the  house,  fully  persuaded 
to  yield  to  Christ.     The  next  afternoon  those 
three  men,  Mr.  Whittle,  Mr.  Cole,  and  Mr.  Bliss,  I 
held  a  consecration  meeting;    and  then  and 
there  the  sweet  singer  gave  up  everything  to 
the  Lord,  abandoned  his  musical  conventions 
and  secular  music,  and  put  himself  wholly  at 
the  Lord's  disposal.     From  that  day,  W^ednes- 
day,  March  25,  1874,   until  that  fatal  plunge 
at  Ashtabula,  Dec.  29,  1876,  P.  P.  Bliss  knew 
but    one    aim:     to   brincr  souls   to    Christ  by 


270  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

sacred  song.  How  he  carried  out  his  pur- 
pose let  us  consider,  for  it  has  a  bearing  upon 
hundreds  of  other  Hves. 

God  has  in  every  Hfe  a  plan,  which  it  ought 
to  be,  and  may  be,  our  highest  joy  to  work 
out  into  finished  completeness.  Mr.  Bliss 
had  a  distinct  divine  commission:  the  re- 
demption of  sacred  song  from  prevailing 
perversion.  When  Darwin  Cook  heard  him 
sing  at  a  wedding  anniversary,  he  felt  the 
power  of  song  to  impress  the  gospel,  and  he 
went  to  him  and  told  him  that  such  was  his 
calling.  Moody  says :  ''  I  believe  he  was 
raised  up  of  God  to  write  hymns  for  the  church 
of  Christ  in  this  age,  as  Charles  Wesley  was 
for  his  day." 

In  order  to  do  this,  three  things  were 
necessary,  and  he  studied  to  secure  them 
all,  and  succeeded  :  — 

I.  The  words  must  be  full  of  the  gospel.  Ex- 
amine his  favorite  songs,  especially  those  the 
words  of  which  he  composed:  how  near  they 
lie  to  the  very  heart  of  the  gospel !  They 
present   Christ  as  a  living,  loving,   personal. 


BLISS.  271 

coming  Saviour.  They  emphasize  faith  and 
a  present  salvation.  To  one  who  said  he 
would  "try"  to  seek  the  Lord,  Mr.  Bliss 
spoke  up  and  said,  "  Spell  it  t-R-U-S-t." 
And  that  was  the  key-note  of  his  singing,  as 
in  '^Whosoever  Will,"  "Tis  the  promise  of 
God,"  etc. 

Mr.  Bliss  may  have  written  some  hymns 
that  lack  poetic  beauty,  but  they  contain  no 
morbid  sentiment,  no  sighing  for  past  days 
and  over  aching  voids,  like  Cowper's  Olney 
hymn.  They  were  not  studied  productions  ; 
they  were  inspirations.  Sometimes  a  melody 
would  come  to  him  first,  and  he  would  wait 
for  words  that  seemed  to  fit  Into  its  very 
structure.  Sometimes  the  words  would  come 
first,  born  of  a  sudden  glimpse  of  truth,  and 
would  have  to  wait  for  a  melody  to    match 

them. 

2.  The  music  must  be  fitted  to  the  words, 
and  fitted  to  be  the  vehicle  of  the  Spirit. 

He  and  Mr.  Whittle  spent  at  the  author's 
house  four  weeks  of  their  stay  in  Detroit  In 
1875.     During  that  time  I  had  rare  oppor- 


2/2  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

tunities  of  knowing  him  and  observing  his 
habits.  On  one  occasion  I  wrote  the  words 
of  the  song :  "  With  harps  and  with  viols," 
to  suit  a  sermon  Mr.  Whittle  was  preparing; 
and  before  he  began  to  compose  the  music  for 
those  words,  Mr.  Bliss  withdrew  to  his  room 
for  a  season  of  prayer.  It  was  no  marvel 
that  his  songs  have  been  made  so  conspicu- 
ously the  channels  for  the  conveyance  of 
spiritual  impressions,  for  not  only  the  words, 
but  the  music  too,  were  ''  sanctified  by  the 
word  of  God  and  by  prayer."  As  George 
Herbert  would  say,  **  he  dipped  his  words  in 
his  own  heart"  before  he  sang,  and  bathed 
them  in  his  own  rich  experience,  and  then 
singing  was  an  emotional  utterance,  a  kind  of 
language  finer  and  more  subtile  than  human 
dialects,  in  which  to  express  the  highest 
truths  and  deepest  feelings. 

3.  The  words  must  be  clearly  enunciated, 
even  in  singing. 

Mr.  Finney  was  himself  a  fine  singer,  and 
had  been  a  choir  leader.  But  he  had  no  pa- 
tience with  the  modern  "mouthing  of  words" 


BLISS.  273 

and  "murdering  of  English"  in  choir  sing- 
ing. One  Sunday  morning,  after  an  anthem 
in  which  the  words  had  been  successfully 
smothered  in  vocalization,  he  rose  to  pray, 
and  quaintly  gave  thanks  to  the  Omniscient 
One  that  He  could  ''understand  the  anthem," 
while  confessing  that  it  was  "  impossible 
for  the  audience  to  catch  one  intelligible 
word." 

Who,  that  ever  heard  Mr.  Bliss  sing,  lost  the 
words?  What  superb  enunciation,  emphasis, 
and  musical  pronunciation,  and  —  shall  we  call 
it?  —  elocution!  How  he  sang  those  words, 
*'  When  Jesus  comes,"  and  with  increasing 
volume  brought  out  that  line  of  the  chorus, 

''All   Glory,    GRAND,    ETERNAL!" 
So  he  rendered  in  a  masterly  manner, 

"  '  Man  of  sorrows,'  what  a  name  !  " 

at  first  so  soft  as  scarcely  to  be  audible,  yet 
every  word  clearly  cut,  and  by  a  gradual 
crescendo  mounting  up  to  the  grand  height 
of  that  last  line, 

"  Hallelujah  !   WHAT  A  SAVIOUR !  " 
18 


274  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Such  singing  is  the  loftiest  flight  of  vocal  ut- 
terance, and,  like  the  most  tremendous  bursts 
of  oratory  and  eloquence,  lifts  and  bears  an 
audience  as  on  giant  wings.  It  reminds  us  of 
what  Gladstone  characterizes  as  the  supreme 
influence  of  the  speaker,  —  the  power  of  "  re- 
ceiving from  his  audience  in  a  vapor  what 
he  pours  back  on  them  in  a  flood."  Such 
singing  is  eloquent ;  it  evokes  the  sympathy 
and  stirs  the  emotion  of  an  audience,  and 
these  increase  thus  the  very  power  by  which 
they  were  called  forth. 

Philosophize  as  we  may,  the  fact  is,  as 
attested  in  hundreds  of  instances  individu- 
ally known,  his  singing  was  conspicuously 
used  to  convert  souls.  Mr.  W.  O.  Lattimore 
has  confessed  that  when,  given  up  to  the  wild- 
est debauchery,  he  seemed  drifting  rapidly  to 
a  drunkard's  death  and  a  hopeless  hell,  he 
somehow  got  into  the  Tabernacle  at  Chicago, 
and  heard  that  song  written  by  Mr.  Bliss, 
*'What  shall  the  harvest  be."  The  words  and 
music  roused  him  even  from  his  drowsy  stu- 
por, and  he  listened  :  — 


BLISS.  275 

"  Sowing  the  seed  of  a  Imgering pain  ! 
Sowing  the  seed  of  a  maddened  brain  ! 
Sowing  the  seed  of  a  tarnished  name  ! 
Sowing  the  seed  of  eternal  shame  ! 
OH,  WHAT  SHALL  THE  HARVEST  BE?" 

and  every  line  seemed  to  be  armed  with  a 
heavier  and  sharper  dart,  and  to  come  deeper 
into  his  soul.  He  rushed  from  the  Taberna- 
cle to  the  intoxicating  cup  and  the  gaming- 
table, into  solitude  and  into  society,  but  the 
song  rang  like  a  clarion  in  his  ears ;  and 
in  letters  of  fire  everywhere  appeared  the 
question,  "  What  shall  the  harvest  be  ?  " 
until  he  found  peace  where  only  it  can  be 
found. 

We  believe  Mr.  Bliss  was  raised  up  of  God 
to  become  in  himself  a  living  protest  against 
corruptions  in  the  service  of  song,  such  as 
idolatry  of  art,  singing  in  a  dead  language, 
praising  by  proxy,  lack  of  gospel  quality,  and 
perversion  to  self-display.  He  had  a  royal 
nature,  and  in  the  line  of  song  especially 
transcendent  gifts.  But  they  w^ere  all  the 
Lord's.  This  was  his  alabaster  box  of  pre- 
cious   ointment,  but   he   broke    it   upon    his 


276  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Lord's  blessed  feet,  and  the  house  was  filled 
with  the  odor  of  the  ointment. 

How  pathetic  that  unconscious  prophecy 
of  his  departure  !  He  wrote,  with  regard  to 
that  last  journey:  "Have  planned  to  leave 
the  boys  here  at  Rome  with  grandma  and 
Aunt  Clara  this  winter,  so  that  wife  can  go 
with  me!''  Just  before  the  train  crashed 
through  the  bridge,  he  was  seen  writing  a 
hymn  or  tune.     They  went  together. 


McALL.  277 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

McALL,   THE   EVANGELIST   OF  THE   FRENCH. 

OVE  Is  Omnipotence:  and  therefore 
God  is  Love.  Before  it,  even  the 
barriers  of  a  strange  language  melt 
away,  and  the  iron  doors  of  distrust  and 
hatred  open  as  of  their  own  accord. 

In  the  summer  of  1871  Rev.  Robert  W. 
McAll  and  his  wife  were  visiting  Paris,  then 
still  comparatively  desolate  and  deserted,  at 
the  close  of  the  terrible  war  with  Germany. 
Moved  by  a  deep  desire  to  reach  the  poor, 
priest-ridden  workingmen  with  the  gospel, 
he  and  his  wife  were  giving  away  tracts  in 
the  hotels  and  on  the  public  streets  in  the 
evening  hours  of  an  August  day,  when  a 
workingman  said :  '*  If  any  one  will  come 
among  us  and  teach  us,  not  a  gospel  of 
priestcraft  and  superstition,  but  of  truth 
and  liberty,  many  of  us  are  ready  to  hear." 


278  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Mr.  McAU  returned  home;  but  above  the 
murmur  of  the  waves  and  the  hum  of  busy 
life,  he  heard  the  voice  of  that  workingman : 
"If  any  one  will  come  and  teach  us  ...  we 
are  ready  to  hear."  He  said  to  himself,  "  Is 
this  God's  call?  Shall  I  go?"  His  friends 
said,  "No  !"  But  a  voice  within  said,  "Yes." 
And  he  left  his  English  home  and  parish 
and  went  back,  —  back  to  Belleville,  whence 
in  days  of  anarchy  and  violence  issued  forth 
the  desperate  mobs  to  burn  and  destroy  and 
kill.  There,  in  January,  1872,  in  the  Rue 
Julien  La  Croix,  he  opened  one  little  hall, 
in  a  faubourg  of  one  hundred  thousand  des- 
perate, lawless  communists ;  one  man  con- 
ducting a  gospel  meeting  to  save  millions ! 
He  had  nothing  in  his  hands  for  defence,  in 
the  midst  of  men  known  as  assassins,  but  a 
pocket-Bible,  —  his  "  double-barrel  revolver." 
And  in  a  district  worse  to  work  in  than  St. 
Giles  in  London  he  began  to  tell  the  old 
story  of  Jesus.  And  very  soon  the  little 
place  was  crowded,  and  a  larger  room  be- 
came   a    necessity;    and    so    it   spread   until 


McALL. 


279 


fifteen  years  later  that  one  gospel  hall  has 
become  07ie  hundred  and  thirty,  in  which  in 
one  year  have  been  held  fourteen  thousand 
religious  meetings,  with  a  million  hearers, 
and  four  thousand  services  for  children,  with 
two  hundred  thousand  attendants.  No  such 
history  is  to  be  found  elsewhere,  and  no  sta- 
tistics can  adequately  represent  the  results 
of  a  work  so  apostolic  in  principle  and 
pattern. 

These  many  services  are  simply  ''  recruit- 
ing offices "  to  secure  new  volunteers  for 
the  Lord's  army;  no  new  sect  or  church  is 
formed,  but  converts  are  gathered  and  then 
fall  into  the  neighboring  churches.  But  the 
work  is  only  at  its  beginning.  The  cry 
comes  from  all  parts  of  France  for  new  sta- 
tions ;  and  the  work  needs  only  more  inai 
and  more  means  to  be  indefinitely  multiplied. 

The  McAU  Mission  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  movements  of  Providence  in 
modern  times.  At  the  critical  hour  of  the 
history  of  France,  God  raised  up  the  right 
man  for  the  place  and  the  work :   as  Sydney 


280  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Smith  would  say,  the  round  peg  found  the 
round  hole. 

It  was  in  the  very  period  of  transition 
when,  breaking  with  Romanism,  and  the 
clericalism  which  Gambetta  declared  to  be 
the  foe  of  France,  the  nation  was  left  with- 
out a  religion,  and  in  danger  of  drifting  into 
infidelity  and  atheism.  Mr.  McAll,  obedient 
to  the  call  of  God,  fell  almost  unconsciously 
into  his  place  in  the  plan  of  God,  and  intro- 
duced a  mode  of  worship  without  a  vestige 
of  superstition  or  a  relic  of  empty  formalism 
and  hollow  ceremonial.  Doubtless  he  was 
building  more  wisely  than  he  knew;  but  He 
w^io  called  him  to  the  work  had  prepared 
the  material  for  the  structure,  and  guided  its 
erection. 

Certain  principles  underlie  the  work  of  the 
McAll  Mission  in  Paris  and  other  French  cities, 
and  contribute  to  its  phenomenal  success. 

I.  The  Gospel  f 07'  the  Masses.  — The  leader 
of  the  movement  and  his  fellow-helpers  are 
moved  with  compassion  for  the  multitudes 
that  have  really  no  true  knowledge  of  Christ, 


McALL.  281 

that  faint  for  spiritual  food  and  are  scattered 
abroad  as  sheep  having  no  shepherd.  They 
have  confidence  in  the  adaptation  of  the 
gospel  to  every  need  of  every  human  soul, 
in  the  accessibility  of  the  common  people, 
and  in  the  susceptibility  even  of  the  crimi- 
nal classes  to  the  approach  of  unselfish 
disciples. 

2.  The  Power  of  Passion  for  Souls. — 
Twenty  years  ago  the  thought  of  finding 
in  this  priest-ridden  people,  ignorant,  super- 
stitious, hardened,  and  half-atheistic,  such 
readiness  to  receive  the  Protestant  gospel, 
would  have  seemed  wildly  chimerical.  But 
simple  love  for  their  souls,  unmixed  with 
any  self-advantage,  has  been  the  moving 
spring  of  all  this  work,  and  it  has  proved 
resistless.  When  Mr.  McAll  began  his  work 
in  Belleville  he  could  not  speak  French,  but 
he  could  utter  two  sentences  in  the  tongue 
of  those  workingmen :  one  was,  "God  loves 
you ;  "  and  the  other,  '*  I  love  you ;  "  and 
upon  those  two,  as  pillars,  the  whole  arch 
rests. 


282  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

3.  The  Attraction  of  a  Free  Gospel.  —  From 
the  first  free  distribution  of  tracts  on  the 
streets  of  Paris,  until  the  work  reached  its 
present  grand  dimensions,  nothing  has  at 
once  surprised  and  drawn  the  workingmen 
more  than  this,  that  for  all  this  ministry  to 
their  good,  they  have  not  been  asked  a  cen- 
time !  The  feast  has  been  spread  on  a  hun- 
dred tables  without  money  and  without 
price.  They  have  been  wont  to  associate 
all  that  is  called  religion  with  a  tax,  heavy 
and  oppressive.  The  priests  have  fattened 
on  the  money  paid  for  masses  for  the  dead ; 
and  cathedral  churches  have  been  reared  out 
of  poor  men's  scanty  wages.  But  all  this 
is  an  unselfish  labor,  for  which  no  return  is 
asked. 

4.  The  Simplicity  of  true  Gospel  Work. — 
These  methods  are  unchurchly, —  at  the  far- 
thest remove  from  ritualistic  formalism  and 
ecclesiastical  ceremony.  Any  place  of  meet- 
ing is  good  enough  where  the  people  can  be 
comfortably  gathered.  A  Bible,  a  simple 
stand,    a    small    reed-orijan,    a    few   hundred 


McALL.  283 

chairs,  a  plain,  earnest  address,  singing, 
prayer,  hand-to-hand  contact,  —  this  is  all  the 
machinery  of  the  greatest  mission  movement 
of  modern  times !  A  bare  hand  reached  out 
to  the  poor  workingman,  through  which  may 
be  felt  the  warm  throb  of  a  loving  heart, 
with  not  even  a  kid  glove  between  to  act  as  a 
non-conductor,  —  that  is  the  secret  of  power. 

5.  The  Exempl'fication  of  true  Christian 
Unity. — The  effort  is  both  unsectarian  and 
undenominational.  No  lines  of  division  ap- 
pear between  workers,  and  no  "  tribal  stand- 
ards "  are  unfurled.  Christ's  is  the  only 
name  known.  They  are  "all  one,"  and  hence 
''  the  world  believes."  The  energies  often 
expended  in  contests  and  conflicts,  or  at 
least  rivalries  and  jealousies  among  disciples, 
are  here  all  turned  into  the  channel  of  pure 
evangelistic  work. 

6.  The  Moral  Education  of  the  Common 
People.  —  Mr.  McAU  saw  in  Belleville  extreme 
poverty  and  misery  side  by  side  with  mental 
and  moral  degradation.  He  felt  that  both 
the   material  and   spiritual   conditions  of  the 


284  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

people  must  be  remedied  together,  and  that 
the  gospel  was  the  lever  to  raise  the  whole 
man  to  a  higher  plane.  Hence  the  promi- 
nence given  from  the  first  to  schools  and 
class  instruction.  He  went  everywhere, 
preaching  and  teaching;  informing  the  in- 
tellect and  elevating  the  humanity  of  those 
whose  souls  he  sought  to  save. 

And  the  work  has  been  successful  along 
all  these  lines,  and  the  more  successful  be- 
cause projected  along  all  these  lines.  The 
hand  of  the  venerated  and  lamented  pastor, 
George  Fisch,  was  not  the  only  one  stretched 
out  in  recognition  and  encouragement.  In 
1877  the  '' Societe  Nationale  d'Encourage- 
ment  au  Bien  "  presented  McAll  with  a  silver 
medal,  for  his  devotion  to  Jiumanity.  And 
the  following  year  the  "  Societe  Libre  d'ln- 
struction  et  d'Education  "  presented  him  a 
medal  for  services  rendered  to  popular  in- 
struction. These  public  acknowledgments 
of  McAll's  work  as  a  philanthropist  and  edu- 
cator were  entirely  aside  from  all  questions 
of  religion  ;  while  the  Government  recognized 


McALL.  285' 

that  same  work  as  the  best  security  for  order 
and  good  citizenship,  offering  him  every  aid 
in  the  planting  of  new  gospel  stations,  as  the 
best  "police  measure"  for  the  prevention  of 
disorder  and  crime. 

The  McAU  Mission  work  inspired  in  the 
Huguenot  churches  —  the  *'  Waldenses  "  of 
France  —  an  aggressive  evangelism.  Their 
life  had  been  repressed ;  the  law  had  pro- 
hibited all  such  aggressive  work,  as  "prose- 
lyting." They  saw  this  humble  man  come 
to  Paris,  and  remove  the  barriers  between 
the  "  unchurched  and  churched  "  and  come 
close  to  the  people ;  they  saw  him  gathering 
the  multitudes  into  his  "halls,"  making  those 
halls  not  only  nurseries  of  piety  but  grand 
training  schools  for  future  evangelism;  meet- 
ing papacy  and  infidelity  not  controversially 
and  negatively,  but  experimentally  and  posi- 
tively. And  here,  where  they  had  thought 
there  was  no  field  for  evangelization,  a  for- 
eigner had  built  up  the  most  wonderful 
mission  in  Europe,  and  proved  papal  France 
to   be    the   foremost  missionary   field  of  the 


286  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

world.  The  Protestant  French  churches 
began  to  ask  whether  France  could  not  and 
ought  not  and  must  not  evangelize  France ; 
and  so  they  have  become  the  missionaries  of 
this  new  era,  and  in  their  poverty  need  only 
money  to  thrust  in  the  sickle  and  reap  these 
white  harvests. 

And  so  among  this  mercurial  people,  whose 
very  blood  is  quicksilver,  God  is  carrying  on 
a  work  whose  depth  and  reality  are  beyond 
all  question.  France  has  had  a  fickle  but 
never  a  torpid  national  life,  — "like  a  maniac 
at  times,  but  never  like  a  corpse."  But  the 
gospel  is  God's  remedy  both  for  infidelity 
and  instability ;  and  so  far  and  so  fast  as  the 
gospel  permeates  the  French  nationality, 
every  noble  characteristic  develops.  Dr. 
A.  F.  Beard,  who  has  the  most  discrimi- 
nating view  of  the  whole  situation,  pronounces 
France,  of  all  lands,  the  '*  most  hopeful  and 
strategic." 

McAU  has  put  in  motion  a  host  of  agen- 
cies, all  evangelistic.  Mission  stations,  with 
schools,  classes,   mothers'    meetings,  prayer- 


McALL.  287 

meetings,  evangelists,  visitors,  tract-distribu- 
tors, —  everything  thoroughly  Evangelical, 
variations  of  one  key-note,— ''Christ  cruci- 
fied." The  labors  are  great,  of  providing 
speakers  for  so  many  meetings,  and  with  no 
free  day  but  Saturday.  The  appliances  are 
very  comprehensive  and  complete,  avoiding 
only  open-air  preaching,  which  conflicts  with 
municipal  law.  The  methods  are  very  sim- 
ple ;  no  expensive  buildings  or  outlay,  —  a 
clean,  whitewashed  wine-shop  or  commodi- 
ous room,  adorned  with  texts  and  provided 
with  platform  and  seats.  And,  withal,  no 
mission  anywhere  is  more  economically, 
honestly,  and  conscientiously  conducted  and 
administered.  Every  centime  is  accounted 
for  in  detail. 


288  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

McAULEY,    THE    EVANGELIST    OF    THE 
OUTCAST. 

INZENDORF,  when  a  lad  at  Halle, 
founded  the  now  famous  Senfkorn 
Ordcn,  —  the  ''  Order  of  the  Grain 
of  Mustard-Seed."  Its  simple  principle  was 
that  every  member  of  it  should  seek  daily 
the  conversion  of  some  other  soul.  That 
"  order "  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  Moravian 
Church,  the  leader  of  God's  missionary 
host. 

Jerry  McAuley  and  the  ''Water  Street" 
and  "  Cremorne "  Missions  have  become 
synonymes  of  self-sacrificing  work  for  the 
salvation  of  the  abandoned  and  outcast 
classes  in  our  cities ;  and  this  is  simply  an- 
other ''order  of  the  mustard-seed,"  —  a  con- 
verted criminal   seeking   to   save  others   like 


McAULEY.  289 

himself  by  declaring  what  God  had  done 
for  his  soul. 

The  conversion  of  this  notorious  river- 
thief,  whose  heart  was  a  cage  for  all  unclean 
birds,  and  whose  lawlessness  made  him  the 
terror  even  of  the  police,  is  one  of  the 
modern  miracles.  It  was  while  in  prison, 
serving  out  his  sentence,  that  on  a  Sunday 
morning  he  saw  on  the  chapel  platform  one 
of  his  old  confederates  in  crime,  known  as 
"  Awful  Gardner."  During  McAuley's  im- 
prisonment, Orville  Gardner  had  found  deliv- 
erance from  the  chains  of  sin,  and  burning 
to  open  prison  doors  to  those  who  were  still 
bound,  he  had  come  that  morning  to  tell  the 
story  of  redemption. 

He  addressed  the  convicts  as  one  who  had 
but  a  little  before  worn  that  same  dress,  but 
who  had  found  in  Jesus  a  white  robe  to  cover 
all  his  sin  and  crime.  The  voice  choked  with 
emotion,  and  the  tears  raining  down  his  face, 
bore  witness  that  with  intense  feeling  and 
earnestness  he  was  speaking.  Then  as  he 
knelt  and  prayed,  the  sobs  of  those  guilty 
19 


290  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

men  echoed  his  own,  and  even  Jerry  Mc- 
Auley  was  forced  to  hide  the  tears  he  was 
ashamed  to  have  seen. 

McAuley  knew  that  Gardner  was  no  hypo- 
crite ;  and  as  he  heard  that  tongue  so  long 
famihar  with  oaths  and  obscenities,  curses 
and  blasphemies,  tenderly  talking  in  that 
new  and  heavenly  dialect,  he  sat  in  rapt 
astonishment.  It  was  all  a  strange  language 
to  him ;  but  the  man's  transformation  was  a 
notable  miracle,  and  he  could  not  deny  it. 
Little  as  he  could  understand  the  message 
of  grace,  one  verse  quoted  by  Gardner  stuck 
in  his  memory;  and  on  his  return  to  his 
cell,  he  took  down  the  prison  Bible  which 
he  had  thrust  into  the  ventilator,  brushed 
away  the  dust  and  cobwebs,  and  began  to 
read. 

A  lady  visitor  to  the  prison  read  and 
prayed  with  him,  and  helped  him  to  pray 
for  himself.  His  increasing  unrest  and  de- 
sire for  pardon  at  last  drove  away  sleep. 
He  flung  himself  on  the  stone  floor  in  an 
agony    of   despair,    and    wept    and    prayed. 


McAULEY.  291 

resolved  not  to  rest  until  his  load  was  lifted. 
In  a  vision  of  the  night  a  gentle  hand  seemed 
laid  on  his  head,  and  a  tender  voice  said, 
"  Thy  sins,  which  are  many,  are  forgiven." 
He  always  believed  this  a  real  visitation  from 
God  in  answer  to  prayer.  He  rose  from  the 
floor,  and  another  jail,  like  that  of  Philippi, 
rang  with  *'  songs  in  the  night,"  and  '*  the 
prisoners  heard." 

The  guard,  astonished,  opening  the  door, 
found  Jerry  shouting,  clapping  hands,  and 
leaping  in  an  ecstasy  of  delight,  and  threat- 
ened to  report  him  for  disorder.  Disorder ! 
Yes,  it  was  the  disorder  of  the  sepulchre  when 
the  dead  hears  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God 
and  comes  forth,  shaking  off  his  grave-clothes. 
From  that  hour  Jerry  McAuley  was  a  new 
man. 

When  prison  doors  shut  behind  him,  he 
felt  an  irresistible  desire  at  once  to  redeem 
his  own  past  and  save  his  old  companions ; 
and  though  he  fell  again  into  evil  company 
and  evil  habits,  the  Lord  had  His  hold  upon 
him,  and   he  was   at  last  developed    into   an 


292 

earnest  and  stable  disciple,  and  learned  that 
his  only  safety  was  in  entire  abandonment 
of  all  evil  and  in  positive  consecration  to 
work  for  souls.  No  man  knows  a  ///// 
salvation  until  he  gets  to  this  same  fork 
in  the  road,  and  deliberately  takes  the  way 
of  self-denial  for  Christ  and  service  for 
souls. 

But  what  work  should  he,  could  he,  do? 
Born  of  a  counterfeiter,  he  had  no  schooling 
but  in  vice  and  crime,  and  had  only  learned 
to  read  and  write  while  in  prison.  He  had 
neither  money  nor  social  standing;  neither 
learning  nor  eloquence ;  neither  a  good  name 
nor  even  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures. 
But  one  thing  was  sure:  the  very  life  he 
had  led  fitted  him  to  reaeh  eriminals  and 
outcasts  like  himself.  He  knew  them,  and 
they  knew  him.  If  he  could  make  them 
beheve  that  he  was  a  converted  man,  and 
sincere  in  his  desire  to  do  them  good,  he 
might  get  a  hold  upon  them  that  other 
men  could  not.  To  his  hearty  surren- 
der   to    this    conviction^    zvc    may    trace    a 


McAULEY. 


293 


career  of  usefulness  that   even   angels  might 
envy. 

He  went  back  to  his  old  haunts  of  crime, 
and  began  to  work,  without  waiting  for 
further  preparations,  appHances,  or  encour- 
agements. In  October,  1872,  the  Water 
Street  Mission  took  shape  as  an  institution, 
and  Jerry  and  Maria  McAuley  began  there 
the  ten  years'  work  whose  grand  results  we 
shall  never  measure  till  the  "  Books "  are 
opened.  Night  after  night,  week  after  week, 
year  after  year,  they  labored  in  their  humble 
way,  seeking  and  saving  the  lost.  They  fed 
the  hungry,  sheltered  the  outcast,  trusted  the 
most  untrustworthy,  and  taught  the  most 
ignorant;  and  by  simple  patience  and  love 
constrained  the  worst  men  and  women  to 
newness  of  life. 

There  was  open  to  them  **  a  door  great 
and  effectual,  and  there  were  many  adversa- 
ries." But  Jerry  McAuley  and  his  brave 
wife  were  not  easily  intimidated.  If  any  one 
came  to  his  meetings  with  a  persistent  pur- 
pose to  interrupt  them,  Jerry  did  not  hesitate 


294  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

to  put  him  out;  and  more  than  one  gigantic 
ruffian  has  proved  a  coward  when,  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  whom  he  served,  Jerry 
laid  hands  upon  him.  With  undaunted  per- 
severance, that  triumphed  over  all  obstacles, 
the  work  was  carried  on,  and  a  night  rarely 
passed  without  some  marked  case  of  con- 
version. 

The  means  used  were  of  the  most  unpre- 
tending sort.  A  plain  but  tolerably  com- 
modious room,  seated  with  benches;  singing, 
praying,  simple  reading  of  the  Word  of  God 
with  such  explanation  as  a  man  taught  of 
God  could  add,  and  the  testimony  of  per- 
sonal experience,  together  with  hand-to- 
hand  contact  with  the  lost,  —  these  were  all 
Jerry  McAuley's  ''secrets."  But  God  used 
just  such  humble  people  and  methods  to 
work  wonders  of  grace. 

When   Saint  Theresa  began   to  build   her 
hospital,  she  had,  as  her  whole  capital,  three  ' 
halfpence.     But  she  said  :  ''Theresa  and  three 
halfpence  are   nothing;    but   God   and   three 
halfpence    are  incalculable."      All  successful 


McAULEY.  295 

work  for  Christ  and  souls  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  old  adage :  **  One  with  God  is  a 
majority." 

When,  after  seven  and  a  half  years  at  Sing 
Sing,  Jerry  McAuley  came  out  of  prison, 
with  blighted  life  and  reputation,  no  one 
could  have  thought  that  God  would  use  a 
man  so  foolish,  weak,  base,  despised,  —  a  mere 
nonentity  in  human  eyes,  —  to  do  a  service  so 
great,  and  among  a  class  so  low,  that  the 
wise  and  mighty  were  unequal  to  it.  But  so 
it  was.  His  very  humility,  incompetency, 
conscious  unworthiness,  ignorance,  weakness, 
drove  him  to  the  only  Source  of  power.  He 
gave  himself  up  to  God  to  be  filled  and  to 
be  used.  And  while  others  waited,  and  won- 
dered who  should  work  for  the  outcasts  and 
the  abandoned,  Jerry  McAuley  went  to  work 
and  saved  them. 

No  man  was  so  vile  or  so  vicious  that 
Jerry  McAuley  despaired  of  him.  "  Rowdy 
Brown"  was  one  of  the  roughs,  —  a  large, 
strong,  bold  fellow,  who  united  the  brutality 
of  a  savage  with  the  ferocity  of  a  wild  beast. 


296  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Passing  a  man  who  was  seated  on  the  fore- 
castle of  a  Liverpool  packet,  quietly  reading 
his  Bible,  Brown,  in  pure  malice,  kicked  him 
so  violently  in  the  mouth  as  to  knock  out 
his  teeth;  and  this  ruffian  had  killed  men 
while  in  California.  Hearing  of  the  conver- 
sion of  one  of  his  sailor-mates  at  the  Water 
Street  Mission,  he  swore  that  he  would  go 
down  there;  and  if  that  fellow  should  get 
up  to  talk,  he  would  force  open  his  jaws 
and  empty  a  bottle  of  whiskey  down  his 
throat. 

He  went  with  his  bottle.  But  there  was  a 
Power  there  on  whose  resistance  to  his  devil- 
ish plot  he  had  not  counted.  While  waiting 
for  his  time  to  come,  he  became  strangely 
moved  himself;  a  new  sensation,  a  violent 
trembling,  overmastered  him.  He  could  not 
even  flee ;  the  crowd  was  too  dense,  and  his 
strength  was  gone.  By  the  time  his  old  chum 
was  giving  his  testimony.  Rowdy  Brown  was 
ready  to  faint ;  and  when  at  the  close  of  the 
testimonies,  inquirers  were  invited  to  come 
forward,  he  startled  the  whole  company  by 


McAULEY.  297 

dropping  on    his   knees    and   crying,   "  Pray 
for  me  I  " 

The  excitement  was  intense.  He  yelled 
and  groaned  for  mercy,  while  his  awakened 
conscience  rocked  and  racked  even  his  huge 
frame.  Two  nights  of  tempest  passed  before 
he  heard  the  Voice  that  speaks  the  soul  into 
calm.  But  when  he  did  get  peace,  he  leaped 
from  bed  at  midnight  and  roused  the  whole 
house  with  his  shouts  of  praise.  Rowdy 
Brown  no  sooner  found  Christ  than  he 
found  work  for  Christ.  In  his  intense  pas- 
sion to  save  men  he  would  actually  pick  up 
bodily  and  carry  some  sailor  to  the  Mission, 
and  set  down  the  astonished  man  on  the 
anxious  seat,  and  then  plead  and  pray  with 
him  till  the  heat  of  his  own  ardor  and  fervor 
melted  him  into  submission  to  Christ.  His 
old  companions  could  not  credit  his  conver- 
sion as  a  reality.  A  captain  whom  he  had 
cruelly  beaten  scouted  the  idea,  and  ex- 
claimed: "Brown  is  a  devil;  he  can't  be 
converted !  "  Yet  even  at  that  moment  that 
same   Rowdy    Brown   was    preparing    for   a 


298  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

meeting  on  board  a  West  India  brig,  stretch- 
ing a  canvas  for  an  awning  and  putting  up 
his  crude  sign,  and  running  boats  to  and  fro 
to  bring  sailors  on  board  who  were  wilhng  to 
attend  a  "  Jerry  McAuley  prayer-meeting." 

This  is  only  one  representative  instance  of 
the  far-reaching  results  of  Jerry  McAuley's 
evangelistic  work.  A  year  or  two  before  his 
death  he  was  led  to  resign  the  Water  Street 
Mission  to  other  hands,  and  gave  himself  to 
the  new  Cremorne  Mission,  at  the  corner 
of  Thirty-second  Street  and  Sixth  Avenue. 
Here  was  another  gateway  of  hell,  sur- 
rounded by  houses  of  ill-fame ;  but  here, 
in  that  very  room  where  vice  and  crime  had 
held  revel,  God's  grace  repeated,  and  still  re- 
peats, night  after  night  the  wonders  wrought 
in  the  Water  Street  Mission. 

The  whole  work  of  Jerry  McAuley  shows 
the  power  of  God's  Spirit  through  personal 
testimony.  Here  was  no  marked  ability  of 
any  sort.  A  man,  born  of  criminals  and  bred 
to  crime ;  an  ex-convict  and  outcast,  ignorant 
and  inadequate  in  himself  to  any  great  work  ; 


McAULEY.  299 

nay,  bearing  about  side  by  side  with  the 
"  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus  "  the  marks  of  his 
old  Hfe,  —  simply  delivered  one  great  gospel 
message,  backed  up  by  his  personal  testi- 
mony: "This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy 
of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into 
the  world  to  save  sinners ;  of  whom  I  am 
chief.  Howbeit  for  this  cause  I  obtained 
mercy,  that  in  me  first  Jesus  Christ  might 
show  forth  all  long-suffering,  for  a  pattern  to 
them  which  should  hereafter  believe  on  Him 
to  life  everlasting."  These  personal  testimo- 
nies from  himself  and  other  converts  were 
the  special  attraction  of  these  meetings,  and 
in  them  was  the  hiding  of  their  power.  Such 
witness  of  the  lips,  confirmed  by  the  life,  in- 
spired hope  even  in  the  most  desperate  and 
despairing  sinners ;  it  proved  that  **  He  is 
able  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come 
unto  God  by  Him." 

On  September  21,  1884,  at  the  Broadway 
Tabernacle  in  New  York  City,  there  was  such 
a  gathering  as  that  metropolis  has  never 
known    before   or   since.     The   building  was 


300  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

thronged,  and  even  the  street  blocked,  by  a 
crowd  that  was  a  strange  mixture  of  mer- 
chants and  ministers,  lawyers  and  bankers, 
roughs  and  rowdies,  women  of  fashion  and 
women  of  the  town.  It  was  the  funeral  of 
Jerry  McAuley;  and  all  ranks  and  classes 
were  there  to  lay  their  tributes  side  by  side 
upon  his  coffin,  and  shed  their  tears  together 
over  the  dust  of  the  man  who  had  done  more 
than  all  the  churches  of  that  city  to  rescue 
the  perishing  from  a  life  of  sin  and  shame, 
and  who  went  within  the  very  gates  of  hell 
to  pluck  brands  out  of  the  burning.  After 
the  services  were  closed,  for  four  hours  the 
procession  moved  by  that  open  coffin;  and 
redeemed  convicts  and  the  noblemen  of  the 
land  alike  burst  into  tears  as  they  looked  for 
the  last  time  on  that  pale  face  which  ladies 
of  quality,  and  women  who  had  been  sinners, 
alike  kissed  with  grateful  love. 

•'  God  buries  the  workers,  but  He  carries 
on  the  work,"  is  the  inscription  on  the 
memorial  tablet  of  the  Wesleys  in  Eng- 
land's  Abbey.     The  Water   Street  Mission, 


McAULEY.  301 

now  in  other  hands,  has  lately  been  adorned 
with  a  marble  tablet,  which  bears  this  in- 
scription :  — 

In  Loving  Memory  of 
JERRY   McAULEY, 

The  Founder  of  this  mission. 

He  rests  from  his  labors, 

And  his  works  do  follow  him. 

Where  I  am  there  shall  also  my  servant  be. 

John  xii.  26. 


302  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 


AN   EXAMPLE    OF   EVANGELISM. 


HANDFUL  of  seed  may  sometimes 
be  traced  to  the  great  harvest  with 
its  garner  full.  One  instance  will  be 
given  to  show  how  feasible  it  is  in  any  field 
to  begin  evangelistic  work,  and  how  rapid 
and  remarkable  may  be  the  results. 

On  a  winter  afternoon,  in  February,  1858, 
a  young  man  of  Philadelphia,  whose  name 
is  now  known  wherever  the  English  tongue 
is  spoken,^  wxnt  with  a  missionary  of  the 
American  Sunday-School  Union^  to  a  second- 
story  back-room  of  a  humble  house  on  Pine 
Street,  near  Twenty-third,  to  begin  a  mission 
Sunday-school  in  a  very  destitute  and  un- 
promising quarter.  The  few  children  who 
gathered,  with    those  who    had   called   them 

1  Mr.  John  Wanamaker.  -  Mr.  E.  \\.  Toland. 


AN  EXAMPLE  OF  EVANGELISM.         303 

together,  were  compelled  to  beat  a  hasty 
retreat  before  the  rowdies  and  roughs,  known 
as  "  Killers  "  and  *'  Bouncers,"  whose  clubs 
were  the  terror  of  the  neighborhood. 

But  a  strong  desire  to  teach  these  poor 
neglected  little  ones  had  taken  possession  of 
this  young  man  of  twenty-one ;  and  that  same 
afternoon  another  room  was  found  on  South 
Street,  where  on  the  next  Lord's  day  a  Sun- 
day-school was  begun,  —  afterwards  known  as 
the  Bethany  Mission,  —  with  twenty-seven 
children,  and  two  women,  with  the  two  men 
aforementioned,  as  teachers.  The  accom- 
modations were  so  poor  that  the  only 
benches  were  those  extemporized  out  of  old 
boards  and  bricks ;  and  the  neighborhood 
so  unattractive  that  but  one  house  relieved 
the  long  stretch  of  brick-yards,  clay-pits,  and 
ash-heaps  between  South  Street  and  the 
Baltimore  Railroad,  half  a  mile  below,  —  this 
deserted  district  being  the  territory  of  the 
terrible  "■  Schuylkill  Rangers." 

The  rapid  increase  of  children  compelled 
the  renting  of  a  room  adjoining,  and  still  a 


304  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

third,  downstairs,  while  the  staircase  itself 
was  crowded.  July  came,  and  a  proposal  was 
made  to  erect  a  tent  to  relieve  the  pressure 
for  room,  as  no  larger  building  could  be  had. 
And,  after  prayer  for  guidance,  the  superin- 
tendent and  his  bigger  boys  of  the  school 
levelled  off  the  ash-lot  on  South  Street,  where 
the  tent  was  put  up,  made  of  old  ship  sails, 
which  an  old  man  interested  in  the  work  had 
himself  begged  at  the  wharves. 

That  Monday  morning  when  these  ''  tent- 
makers  "  met  on  the  ground  to  put  up  their 
rude  canopy  was  a  time  of  excitement.  It 
was  a  Catholic  neighborhood,  and  there  were 
threats  that  the  tent  should  not  be  put  up, 
or,  if  so,  should  be  burned  or  torn  down. 
But  instead  of  carrying  out  these  threats, 
many  of  these  people  actually  came  to  be 
numbered  with  those  who  supported  the  work 
with  their  money  and  guarded  it  with  their 
prayers.  The  tent  enclosed  seats  for  some 
four  hundred  persons;  and  when  the  side- 
curtains  were  raised,  more  than  as  many  more 
could  be  accommodated  on  the  lot  outside. 


AN  EXAMPLE  OE  EP^ANGELISM.         305 

The  Sunday-school  at  once  grew  from  one 
hundred  to  three  hundred ;  and  on  the  first 
night  of  the  completed  tent,  before  the  first 
Sabbath  service  was  held,  a  woman  there 
gave  her  heart  to  God  who  is  still  a  teacher 
in  Bethany  school.  That  first  convert  was 
God's  seal  on  the  work,  and  was  both  seed 
and  sign  of  the  coming  harvest.  The  increas- 
ing interest  forbade  that  the  work  should  be 
limited  to  the  summer  season,  and  so  friends 
rallied  to  help  buy  a  lot  and  build  a  house ; 
and  in  January,  1859,  the  Sunday-school 
moved  into  a  new  brick  building  close  by 
on  South  Street,  having  multiplied  tenfold 
within  its  first  year. 

From  the  first  Sunday  in  the  tent,  not  only 
prayer-meetings  but  preaching  services  were 
a  part  of  the  work;  and  in  September,  1865, 
a  church  of  twenty  members  was  organized 
and  a  pastor  installed.  Soon  even  this  new 
building  became  too  strait  and  was  crowded 
almost  to  suffocation.  God  was  compelling 
these  humble  workers  to  do  a  greater  service 
for  the  souls  about  them  than  they  had  ever 


306  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

imagined.  In  faith  they  followed  His  moving 
pillar,  and  He  made  the  way  plain.  A  large 
lot  was  bought,  and  in  February,  1868,  —  ten 
years  after  the  inception  of  the  enterprise, — 
a  large  Sunday-school  hall  was  erected  and 
dedicated.  It  was  both  elegant  and  commo- 
dious, but  its  acoustic  properties  were  so 
faulty  that  few  could  be  heard  who  spoke 
from  its  platform ;  and  the  superintendent, 
who  was  already  a  prosperous  business  man, 
offered  at  his  own  expense  to  tear  down  and 
reconstruct  the  building,  which  was  done  at 
a  cost  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  But  the 
grand  result  is  a  model  Sunday-school  hall, 
capable  of  seating  over  three  thousand,  and 
where  every  word  from  the  platform  may  be 
heard  in  every  part. 

Side  by  side  with  this  structure,  in  1874, 
stood  also  the  completed  church-building; 
together  these  two  structures  cover  nearly 
thirty  thousand  square  feet,  and  provide  ac- 
commodations for  five  thousand.  As  we  look 
back  now  over  these  thirty  years  since  the 
first  Sunday-school  was  held,  the  expenditure 


AN  EXAMPLE  OE  EVANGELISM.         307 

Upon  the  buildings,  the  support  of  the  work, 
and  the  various  benevolences  in  connection 
with  it,  reaches  a  total  of  not  less  than  half  a 
million  of  dollars  !  What  a  sum  for  a  few,  fee- 
ble folk  to  gather,  with  scarce  three  persons 
among  them  representing  wealth  ! 

The  bulk  of  that  church- membership, 
though  in  numbers  the  fifth  largest  in  the 
denomination,  is  even  yet  from  the  working- 
classes.  Only  the  Book  of  Remembrance  of 
the  Lord  Himself  could  reveal  the  sacred 
self-sacrifice  by  which  the  work  has  been 
carried  to  its  present  stage.  On  the  central 
tower  of  the  Sunday-school  hall  is  a  signifi- 
cant inscription :  ''  A  little  child  shall  lead 
them."  It  is  the  memorial  of  little  Ella 
Hurst,  a  child  of  the  infant  school,  who,  in 
her  desire  to  do  something  for  the  new  build- 
ing, actually  went  into  the  streets  and  gath- 
ered buckets  of  bones,  and  sold  them.  The 
little  gold  dollar  that  she  thus  earned  and 
brought  to  the  building-fund  became  the 
nucleus  of  many  other  gifts.  The  story  of 
her    self-sacrifice    became    known,   and   from 


308  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

the  influence  of  that  one  poor  little  child 
came  all  the  money  that  was  turned  into 
stone  and  grew  toward  heaven  in  that  sym- 
metrical bell-tower. 

But  this  was  only  one  of  the  instances  of 
self-denial,  most  of  which  have  no  written 
history,  by  which  these  great  buildings 
have  been  raised.  There  were  scholars  and 
teachers,  parents  and  children,  who  wrought 
some  product  of  brain  or  brawn ;  who  gave 
up  a  new  dress  or  coat  or  bonnet;  who  sold 
rings  and  breastpins  and  trinkets ;  who  gave 
money  that  had  been  laid  aside  for  a  watch 
or  a  book  or  some  coveted  pleasure ;  or  who 
even  went  without  a  meal,  now  and  then,  in 
order  to  get  means  to  give.  The  story  of  how 
those  structures  went  up  would  read  like  a 
romance.  They  are  love  and  labor,  tears  and 
prayers,  crystallized  into  architectural  forms. 

But  who  shall  write  the  exhaustive  annals 
of  the  thirty  years  since  that  Sunday-school 
began  on  that  wintry  morning  in  1858;  those 
more  than  two  thousand  sessions^  with  as 
many  persons  who  have  served  as   teachers 


A  A'  EXAMPLE  OF  EVANGELISM.        309 

and  officers,  and  ten  times  as  many  who  have 
been  connected  in  some  way  with  the  school ; 
the  tracts  and  printed  pages  distributed  by 
the  miUion ;  the  more  than  five  thousand 
Bibles  and  twenty  thousand  hymn-books 
sold ;  and  better  than  all,  the  thousands  who 
from  this  school  have  been  graduated  into 
the  wide  world  and  scattered  in  every  part 
of  the  world-field,  or  who  are  now  shining 
among  the  stars? 

From  the  very  inception  of  this  enterprise 
a  twenty  minutes'  prayer-meeting  has  been 
held  uniformly  at  the  close  of  the  Sunday- 
school  session,  and  visitors  present  at  the 
school  are  invited  to  remain  and  participate. 
At  times  as  many  as  fottrteen  nations  have 
been  represented  in  those  who  have  taken 
part  in  one  of  these  after-meetings,  and  who 
have  gone  to  their  distant  homes  to  bear  the 
inspiration  of  this  school,  like  a  live  coal  to 
kindle  fires  on  other  altars. 

The  direct  and  indirect  influence  of  this 
evangelistic  church  and  school  no  pen  can 
record,    for   no    arithmetic    can    compute    it. 


3IO  EVANGELISTIC   WORK. 

That  whole  section  of  the  city  is  transformed. 
The  drinking  saloon  and  filthy  hovel  have 
given  way  to  great  blocks  of  neat  and  eco- 
nomical homes  for  the  workingman ;  there 
are  sobriety,  order,  thrift,  piety,  where  once 
drunkenness,  anarchy,  idleness,  and  crime 
abode.  That  school  and  church  have  made 
police-stations  and  lock-ups  needless,  and 
introduced  all  the  blessings  of  a  Christian 
civilization  to  redeem  poverty  and  misery. 

The  motto  of  this  enterprise  has  from  the 
beginning  been  growtJi ;  first,  by  strengthen- 
ing and  educating  disciples,  and  secondly, 
by  reaching  out  and  gathering  in  outsiders. 
Hence  every  effort  has  been  made  to  make  the 
church  and  school  a  model  Christian  'home, 
attracting  to  its  bosom,  and  then  nourishing 
and  cherishing  those  w^hom  it  attracted.  A 
w^eekly  teachers'  meeting  and  adult  Bible-class 
is  taught  by  the  pastor ;  weekly  prayer-meet- 
ings are  regularly  held  for  the  congregation 
at  large,  and  for  the  elder  ladles,  the  young 
ladies,  and  the  young  people,  particularly. 
An   Industrial    Collecfe   meets  twice   a  week 


AjV  example  oe  evangelism.      311 

from  October  to  June,  for  instruction  in  secu- 
lar and  religious  departments,  at  a  nominal 
rate,  and  is  attended  by  hundreds  of  students. 

Organizations  of  various  kinds  within  the 
church  offer  abundant  spheres  for  every 
wiUing  worker  to  help  according  to  the  meas- 
ure of  ability  and  opportunity.  A  church 
council,  composed  of  elders,  deacons,  and 
trustees,  to  consider  all  matters  pertaining  to 
the  conduct  of  the  church  and  school ;  foreign 
missionary,  Dorcas,  and  aid  societies;  door 
men's  and  youths'  associations,  busy  bees, 
white  ribbon  temperance  army,  and  converts' 
classes,  —  these  are  a  few  of  the  many  forms 
of  organization  for  mutual  help  and  common 
work. 

The  work  of  the  Evangelist  Band,  how- 
ever, falls  particularly  within  the  scope  of 
this  chapter,  and  furnishes  a  very  significant 
example  of  what  God  is  willing  to  do  with  a 
few  consecrated  young  men.  In  February, 
1884,  some  twenty  young  men  had  solemnly 
covenanted  with  each  other  to  hold  themselves 
ready  promptly  to  take  up  any  Christian  work, 


312  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

especially  among  the  unsaved.^  From  the 
beginning,  an  abundant  and  conspicuous 
blessing  has  rested  upon  this  organization. 
These  young  men,  and  others  who  have 
joined  them,  have  come  to  be  leaders  in 
evangelistic  work,  conducting  cottage  prayer- 
meetings,  mission  Sunday-schools,  out-door 
services,  etc. 

One  example  of  their  evangelism  may  be 
mentioned.  Under  the  lead  of  the  associate 
pastor,^  early  in  the  summer  of  1885  a  gos- 
pel tent  was  erected  in  the  southwest  part  of 
the  city.  The  main  part  of  the  work  was 
done  and  the  expense  borne  by  these  young 
men  themselves.  They  obtained  the  privi- 
lege of  using  a  vacant  lot,  dug  post-holes 
with  their  own  hands,  — their  pastor  leading 
the  way  in  the  hardest  of  the  work,  —  then 
built  a  high  rough  board-fence,  enclosing  the 
lot.  Then  they  put  up  a  rude  framework  of 
joists  and  timbers,  and  stretching  over  it  a 
canvas  covering  made  of  old  sail-cloth,  built 
a    rude    platform    and    benches,    and    there 

1  Appendix  B.  2  Rgy,  Thomas  C.  Iloiton. 


AA^  EXAAIFLE  OF  EVANGELISM.         3  13 

began  to  hold  a  Sunday-school  and  preach- 
ing service,  with  weekly  meetings.  So  great 
was  the  interest  awakened  that  when  the 
autumn  came  they  determined  to  enclose 
the  open  sides  with  boards  and  put  in  large 
stoves,  and  so  keep  the  services  going  through 
the  cold  weather.  The  result  is  that  the  work 
has  been  maintained  until  the  present  date, 
with  no  interruption,  and  has  been  constantly 
fruitful  in  conversions  even  among  the  lowest 
and  outcast  classes. 

Though  the  writer  is  honored  with  the 
privilege  of  association  with  this  church  as 
one  of  its  pastors,  he  feels  that  there  is  no 
immodesty  or  indelicacy  in  giving  this  testi- 
mony, since  his  own  connection  with  this 
enterprise  has  been  too  recent  ^  materially 
to  affect  its  character.  In  nearly  every  re- 
spect, the  work  here  chronicled  was  already 
in  progress  before  the  present  pastorate 
began.  But  he  is  quite  willing  to  suffer  the 
reproach  of  a  seeming  breach  of  good  taste 
if  he  may  prove  to  an  apathetic  and  sluggish 

1  Beginning  July,  1883. 


314  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Christendom  that  a  few  young  men,  with  no 
pretence  to  either  learning  or  culture,  wealth 
or  influence,  may,  by  simply  undertaking  to 
work  in  the  simplest  way  for  souls,  turn  a 
vacant  lot  into  a  sanctuary,  and  make  a  rude 
tent  for  years,  through  summer  and  winter 
alike,  a  birthplace  for  souls ! 

Gottschalk,  on  a  visit  to  Spain,  learned  of  a 
poor  dying  girl  who  asked  but  one  privilege 
before  she  breathed  her  last,  —  "  to  hear  him 
make  his  piano  talk."  His  generous  nature 
responded  ;  and  he  had  his  favorite  instrument 
carried  at  his  own  cost  to  her  apartment,  and 
there  for  hours  soothed  her  sufferings  by  his 
master  melodies  and  harmonies.  So  deep 
was  her  enjoyment,  that  while  he  was  play- 
ing plaintively  she  quietly  passed  away. 
What  might  not  we  accomplish,  if  we  had 
such  passion  for  souls  as  would  lead  us  to 
bear  to  the  huts  of  the  poor  and  the  bedsides 
of  the  dying,  without  money  or  price,  that 
blessed  gospel  which  is  vocal  with  the  music 
of  heaven ! 


A    WORD   OF   WITNESS.  315 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 


A   WORD   OF   WITNESS. 


i^^mERILY  I  say  unto  you:  If  ye  have 
wffl  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard-seed, 
ye  shall  say  unto  this  mountain, 
Remove  hence  to  yonder  place,  and  it  shall 
remove;  and  nothing  shall  be  impossible 
unto  you."^ 

This  is  one  of  the  great,  deep  lessons 
taught  by  our  Lord.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  minute  mustard-seed  and  the 
mountain  is  not,  however,  one  of  quantity 
only,  but  of  quality  also.  The  seed  may  be 
little,  but  it  is  the  hiding  of  that  great  force 
of  nature  which  we  call  vegetable  life.  The 
mountain  is  but  a  dead,  inert  mass  of  matter, 
incapable  of  motion  or  growth.  The  seed 
has  the  secret  of  life  and,  with  it,  of  growth, 

A  Matt.  xvii.  20. 


3l6  EVANGELISTIC    WORK, 

and,    by   growth  or  expansion,  can   lift    and 
heave  huge  masses  of  dead  matter. 

So  of  the  prayer  which  is  the  hiding  of 
faith,  and  so  of  power  to  prevail  with  God. 
The  prayer  may  be  insignificant  in  human 
eyes,  and  the  faith,  even  in  the  eyes  of  the 
praying  soul,  so  small  as  to  seem  nothing; 
but  it  is  the  seed  of  God,  and  hides  the  life 
of  God ;  and  in  contrast  to  that  vital  principle 
all  external  obstacles  are  only  like  dead 
masses  of  matter,  to  be  removed  by  the  fiat 
of  faith,  which  Coleridge  says  is 

"  An  affirmation  and  an  act, 
That  bids  eternal  truth  be  fact." 

Even  where  obstacles  are  overcome  in  the 
mind  and  heart  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  or  a 
servant  of  God,  he  often  finds  obstacles  in 
his  environment  which  he  seems  powerless 
to  remove  or  surmount.  He  feels  himself 
hemmed  in  by  massive  walls  or  pressed 
down  by  heavy  weights,  and  knows  not  what 
to  do. 

For  example,  here  is  a  man  of  God  who 
in  the  midst  of  preaching  is  drawn  or  driven 


A    WORD   OF   WITNESS  317 

into  closer  contact  with  God,  and  comes  to 
feel  that  his  heart  has  never  been  fired  with 
passion  for  souls  or  the  flame  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  has  a  holy  unrest  until  God 
touches  him  with  the  live  coal  from  off  the 
heavenly  altar,  and  then  he  begins  to  burn 
as  never  before  to  reach  with  the  gospel 
message  those  who  are  practically  outside  of 
the  Church  and  its  influences. 

But  a  second  obstacle  confronts  him.  He 
is  a  pastor  of  a  church  that  has  little  or  no 
evangelistic  spirit.  There  may  be  wealth 
and  numbers  and  outward  prosperity,  but 
there  is  also  a  worldly  spirit  and  atmosphere. 
The  Spirit  of  God  is  not  present  in  power, 
and  the  people  have  not  the  mind  to  work 
in  self-sacrificing  ways.  The  pews  are  rented 
or  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  the  poor 
do  not  feel  at  home  or  welcome.  There  is 
no  systematic  effort  to  get  the  outsiders  who 
neglect  all  the  means  of  grace  to  come  and 
hear  the  gospel,  and  there  is  no  systematic 
effort  to  carry  the  gospel  to  those  who  will 
not  come  to  hear  it. 


3l8  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Under  circumstances  like  these,  a  pastor 
whose  heart  the  Lord  has  touched  and  set 
aglow  with  desire  to  evangelize  the  heathen 
about  him  is  in  sore  perplexity.  He  hesi- 
tates to  sever  the  pastoral  tie  that  he  may  go 
out  and  work  for  unsaved  souls  with  unre- 
strained freedom ;  he  loves  his  people,  and 
he  feels  that  if  they  can  be  made  to  see 
the  necessity  and  the  opportunity  for  such 
aggressive  work  as  he  does,  and  to  break 
away  from  a  sluggish  indolence  and  a  fetter- 
ing conservatism,  great  results  must  follow. 
It  may  be  that  a  few  consecrated  souls  are 
prepared  to  move,  but  are  opposed,  or  at 
least  obstructed,  by  the  apathy  and  inertia 
of  the  rest. 

To  encourage  and  inspire  a  pastor  who 
feels  himself  thus  encumbered  and  embar- 
rassed in  his  work  for  souls,  the  author  of 
these  pages,  at  the  suggestion  of  his  brethren, 
adds  to  this  book  his  own  personal  word  of 
witness,  —  reluctantly,  because  it  invades  those 
secret  experiences  which  belong  ordinarily 
behind  the  veil ;    and  yet  conscientiously,  for 


A    WORD   OF   WITNESS. 


319 


he  feels  it  a  duty  to  give  his  testimony  in  a 
matter  so  weighty. 

In  January,  1876,  I  was  pastor  of  a  large, 
wealthy  church,  preaching  in  a  most  elegant 
edifice,  and  surrounded  with  whatever  could 
gratify  a  carnal  ambition,  love  of  ease,  and 
lust  of  human  applause.  But  God  as  with  a 
lighted  candle  had  been  searching  my  heart, 
and  shown  me  that  idols  were  there,  such  as 
literary  culture,  intellectual  accomplishment, 
oratorical  power,  and  worldly  honor;  and  a 
short  time  before,  He  had  led  me  solemnly 
to  renounce  all  these  idols  that  I  might  be 
holier,  more  useful,  and  more  blessed  as  a 
winner  of  souls. 

There  was  now  in  my  heart  no  conscious 
idol,  and  for  the  first  time  there  was  a  con- 
sciousness of  close  communion  —  almost  con- 
tact—  with  God  in  prayer.  With  peculiar 
earnestness  and  importunity  I  was  led  to 
plead  that  in  some  way  I  might  be  enabled 
to  reach  the  great  host  of  unsaved  souls  out- 
side of  the  churches  in  the  great  city  where 
I  dwelt.     At  the  same  time  there  was  a  clear 


320  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

conviction  that  this  prayer  was  of  God  and 
zvoidd  be  anszvered  in  a  marked  way  that 
ivould  show  His  hand.  This  persuasion  was 
communicated  to  my  wife  alone,  and  we 
trustingly  awaited  the  fulness  of  God's  time 
for  the  blessing. 

On  March  19,  1876,  the  Lord's  Day,  un- 
usual power  was  given  me  in  preaching;  and 
the  time  seemed  so  near  when  God  would 
reveal  His  hand  and  give  new  access  to  the 
non-church  goers,  that  I  felt  pressed  in  spirit 
and  yearned  to  give  vent  to  my  feelings. 
That  very  evening,  after  the  service,  I  opened 
my  heart  to  a  beloved  brother  in  the  minis- 
try; and  the  next  Friday  evening,  at  the 
church  prayer-meeting,  I  spoke  plainly  to 
m,y  beloved  people  of  our  obvious  lack  of 
power  to  reach  these  neglecters  of  worship, 
and  incidentally  remarked  that  our  superb 
church  edifice  perhaps  repelled  the  poor, 
who  felt  themselves  unwelcome. 

I  had  then  been  seven  years  serving  that 
church  as  pastor;  and  that  night  the  grow- 
ing   sympathy   between    us   seemed    to   melt 


A    WORD   OF   WITNESS.  32 1 

or  fuse  our  hearts  into  unity.  It  seemed 
natural  to  draw  nearer  to  them ;  and  leaving 
the  platform,  I  came  and  stood  in  the  midst 
of  them,  and  from  the  open  Bible  read  the 
promises  to  praying  souls,  and  especially 
to  those  who  agree  as  touching  what  they 
ask. 

The  Scripture  testimony  reached  its  climax 
in  such  a  casting  out  of  unbelief  as  fitted  us 
to  pray  in  faith.  I  knelt  among  them,  as  in 
a  large  family  circle,  and  with  strong  crying 
and  tears  we  together  besought  God  to  re- 
move even  a  mountain  obstacle  that  might 
hinder  us  as  a  cJuircJi  from  ejfcctiially  reach- 
ing the  unsaved.  The  Spirit  of  God,  whose 
presence  was  so  vivid  as  to  be  almost  visible, 
interceded  within  us,  with  groanings  which 
cannot  be  uttered,  for  a  new  Pentecost  of 
power  which  would  draw  us  toward  the  masses 
of  the  people  and  draw  them  to  us.  It  was 
a  whole  people  wrestling  with  God  for  a 
blessing. 

While  we  were  praying,  that  building  was 
b:trning !     As  the  prayer  closed,  the  smoke 


322  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

was  already  filling  the  room,  but  was  attribu- 
ted to  contrary  winds  driving  it  down  the 
flues.  In  fact,  the  lath  had  caught  from  the 
srnoke-pipe,  and  the  fire  was  working  its  way 
behind  the  plaster  and  so  escaped  detec- 
tion. But  early  the  next  morning,  Saturday, 
March  25,  the  flames  burst  forth  and  laid 
our  beautiful  house  in  ruins.  This  was  a 
strange  answer  to  our  prayer;  but  it  was 
the  common  conviction  of  devout  disciples 
that  the  whole  event  had  a  Divine  meaning, 
and  that  God  had  thus  set  before  us  an 
open  door,  great  and  effectual,  to  the  neg- 
lected and  neglecting  rnasses  of  our  city 
population. 

We  secured  a  large  opera-house,  and  there 
the  great  central,  vital  truths  of  the  gospel 
were  preached  simply  and  freely  and  extem- 
poraneously. A  marked  blessing  was  at  once 
bestowed:  more  souls  were  hopefully  con- 
verted in  those  sixteen  months  than  durine 
sixteen  previous  years  of  my  ministry;  and 
the  co7iverts  were  almost  exclusively  from  those 
outsiders  hitherto   unreached.     Not   only  so, 


A    WORD   OF  WITNESS.  323 

but  from  the  day  of  that  fire  that  church  has 
been  largely  attended  by  the  class  of  people 
toward  whom  our  hearts  had  been  so  much 
drawn  in  prayer.  The  preaching  of  the 
gospel  in  simplicity  and  without  price,  in 
that  place  of  amusement,  somehow  drew 
that  church  and  the  non-church  goers  to- 
gether, and  the  effect  has  been  permanent. 
During  the  whole  time  of  the  rebuilding, 
polite  ushers  waited  on  all  alike,  and  the 
poorest  were  made  to  feel  that  they  were 
more  than  welcome.  The  relation  of  that 
church  to  the  community  is  permanently 
changed. 

Upon  no  merely  natural  basis  can  these 
facts  be  explained.  It  might  have  been  by 
a  simple  coincidence  that  the  fire  caught 
during  the  prayer;  but  for  six  months  pre- 
vious God  had,  in  answer  to  prayer,  commu- 
nicated to  the  pastor  the  strong  confidence 
that  He  would  in  some  signal  way  give  larger 
access  to  souls ;  and,  on  the  very  Sabbath 
previous,  that  confidence  had  been  commu- 
nicated to   a  brother  minister,   and   on   that 


324  EVANGELISTJC    WORK. 

very  night  to  his  own  people,  before  the  fire 
had  been  even  suspected  ! 

An  assurance  which  proved  so  prophetic 
can  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  only  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  imparted  by  the  Hearer 
of  Prayer  as  a  foretaste  of  the  answer.  But 
there  were  many  other  signal  proofs  that  the 
Divine  Presence  was  in  that  pillar  of  fire.  One 
may  be  mentioned  as  an  example. 

In  the  study,  in  the  church  tower,  was  a 
mass  of  manuscript  matter  containing  valu- 
able results  of  Bible  study,  plans  of  sermons, 
etc.  The  desk  which  held  it  was  so  burned 
that  only  the  iron  lock  was  ever  found;  all 
the  books  were  consumed  ;  but  all  that  maii- 
iiscript,  which  could  not  be  replaced,  was 
found  essentially  unharmed,  though  bearing 
plain  marks  of  its  fiery  ordeal.  This  again 
impressed  every  one  as  a  token  of  the  hand 
of  God ;  and  my  friend  Mr.  George  Miiller 
urged  me  to  embody  these  remarkable  facts 
in  a  printed  narrative,  as  a  new  proof  of  the 
power  of  prayer. 

That  church,  by  a  nearly  unanimous  vote, 


A    WORD   OF   WITNESS.  325 

has  made  all  pews  in  the  reconstructed  edi- 
fice free  at  the  evening  service.  Young  men 
have  gone  forth  with  printed  cards  of  invi- 
tation, distributing  them  in  hotels,  saloons, 
and  on  street-corners  previous  to  the  hours 
of  worship.  But  best  of  all,  there  is  a  new 
atmosphere  prevailing;  the  attitude  toward 
the  poor  and  outcast  is  no  longer  one  of 
apparent  coldness  and  indifference,  but  of 
warm  welcome. 

The  fact  is,  that  whole  church  became 
evangelistic.  The  preaching  was  followed 
by  familiar  after- meetings,  and  missionary 
operations  were  carried  on  in  destitute  dis- 
tricts ;  and  so  that  fire  which  drove  a  house- 
less congregation  into  an  opera-house  for 
over  a  year,  and  led  to  the  preaching  of  a 
simple  and  free  gospel  to  rich  and  poor 
alike,  begat  a  close  contact  with  the  mul- 
titudes that  do  not  go  to  church,  and  has 
proved  a  lasting  blessing  not  only  to  that 
congregation,  but  to  the  entire  city. 

This  plain  narrative  of  facts  is  written  with 
a  definite  purpose.     It   is  such  a  history  as 


326  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

cannot  be  private  property;  it  belongs  to  the 
ivhole  Church,  as  a  proof  and  an  illustration 
that  to  a  praying,  believing  people  all  things 
are  possible.  Here  was  a  rich,  cultured  con- 
gregation, largely  leavened  with  worldliness, 
composed  almost  exclusively  of  the  edu- 
cated and  elevated  class,  that  for  some  rea- 
son are  seldom  drawn  into  evangelistic  effort. 
It  was  a  large  church  with  very  few  of  the 
poor  in  it,  and  with  no  practical  contact 
with  the  great  body  of  those  who  attend  no 
place  of  worship.  For  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  it  had  been  somewhat  unjustly 
deemed  an  exclusive  church,  as  though  meant 
for  a  select,  elect  few.  It  was  not  an  aggres- 
sive force  in  that  community. 

But  the  pastor  and  the  more  prayerful 
of  the  people  felt  moved  to  desire  greatly 
increased  service  to  souls,  and  to  see  the 
church  holding  a  different  relation  to  the 
community,  —  going  out  after  the  neglected, 
and  compelling  them  to  come  in.  And  they 
prayed  for  power  from  above.  Their  faith 
was  as  a  grain  of  m.ustard-seed,  but  it  had 


A   WORD   OF   WITNESS. 


327 


in  it  the  life  principle  of  God  and  it  removed 
all  obstacles.  In  a  sudden  and  strange  way 
God  threw  that  church  into  close  contact 
with  the  churchless  masses.  The  gospel  was 
preached  in  its  purity  and  simplicity;  the 
people  were  drawn  to  hear  it,  and  found  a 
w^arm  welcome;  nay,  they  were  sought  after 
and  invited  to  come.  It  was  seen  that  there 
was  power  in  a  free  gospel,  and  so  all  rights 
of  pewholders  were  cheerfully  surrendered 
for  the  second  service ;  plain  congregational 
singing  and  after-meetings  deepened  and 
fastened  the  impression  of  the  gospel ;  ear- 
nest men  and  w^omen  went  out  into  the  midst 
of  the  unsaved,  and  held  prayer-meetings, 
Sunday-schools,  and  preaching  services,  of 
which  more  than  one  new  church  is  now 
the  result,  with  many  other  fruits  which  only 
eternity  can  unveil  or  reveal. 

To  every  fellow-pastor,  and  to  every  church, 
in  the  name  of  our  common  Master,  we  ad- 
dress these  last  words  of  affectionate  appeal. 
Let  us  solemnly  consecrate  ourselves  to  the 
w^ork  of  soul-winning.     Let  us  have  a  pure 


328  EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

gospel  preached,  unmixed  with  sensational 
oddities  and  eccentricities,  human  philoso- 
phy and  wisdom  of  words ;  let  us  warmly 
welcome  the  poor,  the  stranger,  and  even  the 
outcast,  and  go  after  those  that  will  not  come 
to  us;  let  us  have  churches  free,  at  least  at 
the  second  service ;  let  us  have  singing  that 
has  the  savor  of  worship,  the  flavor  of  the 
gospel,  and  helps  to  save  souls;  let  us 
make  the  church  the  home  of  the  people, 
associated  with  every  rational  pleasure  and 
source  of  profit ;  let  us  use  all  proper  means 
whereby  the  most  indifferent  outsiders  may 
be  made  to  feel  that  we  who  love  Christ  are 
alive,  awake,  and  after  souls  ;  let  us  pray  for, 
and  until  we  get,  that  baptism  of  power  which 
endues  us  with  passion  for  souls  and  a  holy 
zeal  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  so  our 
BetJiavens  —  houses  of  vanity  —  shall  be 
transformed  into  BctJiesdas,  —  houses  of  heal- 
ing ;  God's  angel  will  stir  the  stagnant  waters, 
the  multitudes  will  be  drawn  to  the  churches 
as  fountains  of  salvation,  and  many  a  helpless 
cripple  shall  learn  to  walk  in  newness  of  life. 


A    WORD   OF   WITNESS.  329 

With  these  words  we  close  this  vohime,  in 
which  are  embodied  the  deepest  convictions 
which  have  been  reached  or  wrought  by  a 
quarter  of  a  century  of  study  of  this  great 
theme.  The  great  problem  lies  before  the 
Church,  and  the  Scriptures  furnish  its  only 
practical,  possible  solution.  The  whole 
Church  must  accept  the  duty  of  telling  the 
old,  old  story.  Each  one  of  us  is  his 
brother's  keeper.  To  have  heard  the  mes- 
sage is  sufficient  qualification  and  authority 
for  sounding  it  in  the  ears  of  every  unsaved 
soul.  Let  every  hearer  become  a  herald. 
This  is  the  tJieory  of  evangelism,  in  a  nut- 
shell; and  we  have  only  to  put  this  theory 
into  practice,  to  bring  the  gospel  into  contact 
with  every  living  soul  before  the  Bells  of 
God's  Clock  of  the  Ages  shall  ring  in  the 
natal  hour  of  a  New  Century ! 

«'GO  THOU,  AND  PREACH  THE  KINGDOM  OF 
GOD." 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


A. 

TO   GUIDE    INQUIRERS. 

1.  You  should  firmly  believe  that  Jesus  can  and 
WILL  save  NOW,  and  has  saved  you. 

2.  Be  ready  to  tell  how  you  came  to  Him. 

3.  Find  the  central  difficulty  which  hinders 
the  seeker. 

4.  Shun  controversy ;  but  meet  all  honest  doubts 
and  objections. 

5.  Learn  how  to  use  your  Bible,  pointing  to 
the  very  texts  which  show  the  way  to  salvation  and 
what  conversion  is.  —  Acts  viii.,  ix.,  and  x. 

6.  Cultivate  a  prayerful,  humble  dependence  on 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

7.  Press  every  seeker  kindly  to  a  decision  now. 

8.  Fix  in  mind  that  salvation  hangs  not  on  feel- 
ing, but  on  choice. 


334  APPENDIX. 

9.  Urge  BELIEVERS  to  become  confessors.  — 
Rom.  X.  10. 

10.  Be  able  to  put  your  finger  on  the  follow- 
ing helpful  passages  for  different  classes  of 
seekers : — 

(i)  Backsliders.  —  Jer.  ii.  19  ;  iii.  13,  14.  Hosea 
xiv.  4.     Isa.  i.  16-18. 

(2)  Half- Convicted.  —  Rom.  iii.  10-23  '  "^ii* 
24;  I  John  i.  8-10.  Eccl.  vii.  20.  Isa.  hii.  6. 
Psa.  cxHii.  2.  Acts  xiii.  39.  Gal.  ii.  16.  Eph.  ii. 
8,  9.     Jer.  iii.  5. 

(3)  Despairing.  —  Isa.  i.  18  ;  xliii.  25  ;  xliv.  22. 
Micah  vii.  18,  19.  Rom.  v.  6-8.  i  Pet.  ii.  24. 
Rev.  xxii.  17.     John  iii.  16. 

(4)  Fearful  they  will  not  Hold  Out.  —  i  Pet.  iv. 
19.  Psa.  cxxi.  I.  Isa.  xliii.  2.  i  Cor.  x.  13.  2  Cor. 
xii.  9.     Rom.  viii.  38,  39.     Jude  20-25. 

(5)  Stumbling  over  Inconsiste?it  Church-mem- 
bers.—  Rom.  ii.  I  ;  xiv.  3,  4,  12.  John  xxi.  21,  22. 
Matt.  vii.  1-5.     Hosea  iv.  8. 

(6)  Discouraged  by  Previous  Efforts.  —  Jer. 
xxix.  13  ;  1.  4,  5.     Deut.  iv.  29.     Rom,  iv.  5. 

(7)  Putting  Off. — Prov.  xxvii.  i.  James  iv. 
13-17.     2  Cor.  vi.  2.     Heb.  iii.  13.     Luke  xii.  20. 


APPENDIX.  335 

(8)  Not  ready  to  give  up  All  for  Christ.  —  Mark 
viii-  35-37;  X.  29,  30.     Phil.  iii.  7-9. 

(9)  Sceptical, — John  vi.  40;  vii.  17.  Psa.  xxv. 
14.     2  Tim.  ii.  13.     Luke  xvi.  31. 

(10)  How /^  Believe.  —  John  v.  24.  Look,  Isa. 
xlv.  22.  Take,  Rev.  xxii.  17.  Receive,  John  i.  11, 
12.  Trust,  Isa.  xxvi.  3,  4.  Results:  Joy  —  John 
XV.  II.  Peace  with  God  —  Rom.  v.  i.  Peace  oj 
God  —  Phil.  iv.  6,  7.     Rest  —  Matt.  xi.  28-30. 


B. 

We  append  the  simple  Constitution  of  the 
EvangeHst  Band  of  Bethany  Church :  — 

OBJECT. 

Its  object  shall  be  to  train  young  men  for  all 
forms  of  Christian  work,  and  to  engage  them  in 
active  service  for  souls. 

DECLARATION    OF   PRINCIPLES. 

We  do  solemnly  affirm  our  conviction  that  the 
testimony  of  a  disciple  of  Christ  is  largely  hindered, 
if  not  destroyed,  by  conformity  to  tlie  world  in  his 
own  life  and  amusements,  and  we  hold  that  those 
who  join  this  band  should  do  so  with  the  design 
and  purpose  of  living  a  life  separated  unto  God. 

AGREEMENT. 

In  joining  the  Evangelist  Band,  I  purpose,  with 
God's  help,  to  maintain  and  live,  not  only  strictly 


APPENDIX.  337 

moral  and  temperate,  but  to  be  an  example  to  all 
believers  in  godliness  and  purity,  and  to  devote 
such  portion  of  my  time  as  may  be  consistent  with 
other  duties  to  the  direct  work  of  witnessing  to 
Christ  and  of  winning  souls  to  Him. 


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APPENDIX.  339 

(reverse  side.) 

WAS    GLAD    WHEN     THEY    SAID     UNTO    ME,    LET 
US    GO    INTO    THE    HOUSE    OF   THE    LORD. 


Strangers  Always  Welcome! 

Sabbath-School  and  Bible  Classes 

AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  MORNING  SERVICE. 

Interesting  Devotional  I  Social  Meetings 

Everij  TUESDAY  and  FRIDAY  Evening. 

Union  Bible  Service  on  Uniform  S.  S.  Lessons 

At  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Hall  on  Saturday  Evenings  at  7:45. 
Conducted  bt  the  Tastoe. 


fj|OD  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  his 
^nly  begotten 

J^ON,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  might  not 
J^^erish,  but  have 

Everlasting 
Life. 

^_;ome  unto  Me,  and  I  will  give  you 

J;%,est.     Take  my  yoke  upon  you  and  learn 

fjf  me  :   and  ye 

^hall  find  rest  unto  your 

feoulsl 


340 


APPENDIX. 


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A  Great  Book  on  a  Great  Subject. 


THE  CRISIS  OF  MISSIONS; 

Or,  the  Voice  out  of  the  Cloud. 

BY   THE 

REV.    ARTHUR   T.    PIERSOK,    D.  D. 

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A    WORK   OF   PROFOUND    INTEREST    TO    THE 
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ITS    POSSIBLE    FUTURE    AND    ITS    PRESENl 
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By  Rev.  JOSIAH   STRONG,   D.D. 

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MODERN  CITIES 

AND 

THEIR  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS 

By  Rev.  SAMUEL  LANE  LOOMIS. 

WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION 

By  Rev.  JOSIAH  STRONG,  D.D. 
i2mo.     Cloth.     $i.oo. 


An  important  work,  treating  the  growth  of  the  City, 
the  composition  of  its  population,  and  the  peculiar  diffi- 
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